If you want to ensure that you are maximizing the benefits of your paid advertising and avoiding high costs, how can you make sure your site receives more traffic and experiences business growth?
What Is Paid Advertising?
Paid advertising generally refers to the online strategies employed by a company to increase their customer base by investing in advertisement placements on search engines, other websites, or social media platforms.
There is a wide variety of paid advertisements, with the most popular ones being:
- Paid Search: Businesses can bid to appear at the top of search—above organic results—for certain keywords. There are a few types of paid search ads, such as PPC ads, responsive ads, display ads, etc.
- Social Media Advertising: Businesses can run ads on different social media platforms that are popular with their audience. The ad offerings and format varies by platform. The top social media platforms to advertise on are:
- Instagram ads
- Facebook ads
- Snapchat ads
- TikTok ads
- LinkedIn ads
- Banner Ads: Businesses can pay to put a “banner” at the top, bottom or sides of webpages. These are usually in the shape of a rectangle that looks similar to a header or footer.
- Native Ads: Businesses can pay to run ads on other websites that have a similar look and feel to the “native” content on their own site.
Steps to Getting Started with Paid Advertising
1. Understand (and Use) Long Tail Keywords
Longtail keywords, which are several words long, are essential as they have a higher probability of matching the words used by searchers and signify their readiness to hire or make a purchase. Instead of focusing on a generic keyword like “plumber,” it would be more effective to target specific phrases such as “emergency plumber near me” or “plumber to unblock a drain.”
Ubersuggest is an excellent tool for uncovering keywords related to your industry.
When using Ubersuggest, keep in mind that your aim is not to find the keywords with the highest traffic, but rather to discover the specific words your customers utilize when searching for your business.
Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keywords that make up the majority of search-driven traffic, so while thinking step by step, be alert and watch out for them.
Here’s a straightforward system that you can utilize:
Start by inputting your main keyword and then press the “Search” button.
The second step is to go to the Left Sidebar and click on “Keyword Ideas”.
Step #3: Conduct an analysis of the obtained results.
The term “social media marketing” is a highly searched “head” keyword, whereas “social media marketing strategy” is less popular but shows that the searcher is seeking something more specific.
You can push yourself to attempt something like “the ultimate social media marketing strategy.”
To discover additional keywords, simply click on the “Related” tab located next to the “Suggestions” tab.
2. Understand the Different Types of Paid Ads
Before getting started, it is important to have an understanding of the major types of paid advertising as well as their pros and cons, as there are numerous places to purchase ads, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Display Ads or Banner Ads
When considering online advertising, banner ads are the first thing that comes to mind due to their noticeable nature. They are highly prevalent and come in various sizes. Although these ads can be impactful, they primarily appeal to customers who are not actively seeking something new.
Display ads can be successful if used properly. They can be purchased using a pay-per-click model or be displayed for a specific duration. For instance, while reading a newspaper article, someone may not be interested in a new social media course.
The type of ads commonly found on the main Google search page are called text ads. Typically, these ads are less costly compared to display ads and aim at customers who are actively searching for something particular. While they can be highly successful, their effectiveness heavily relies on thorough keyword research and A/B testing, which will be tackled later in this post.
Although there are certainly many other places, here are a few of the places you should consider listing your ads.
Google Ads
Many businesses find Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) to be a logical option due to their ability to provide display and text ads that are tailored to specific keywords. AdWords are without a doubt a suitable choice for any advertising campaign.
Using Google Adwords for an extended period of time will result in a higher return on investment as Google provides better “quality scores” to long-term customers.
Bing or Yahoo
Bing and Yahoo offer ad platforms that function in a similar manner to Google’s, incorporating both display and text ads with targeted search terms. Although these alternatives may generate less traffic, certain brands perceive a slightly improved overall ROI.
Social Media Ads
Over the past few years, the popularity of social media advertising has significantly increased. These advertisements incorporate both text and display components, and they are tailored to reach specific users based on their preferences, demographics, and location. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok are all viable choices to explore for promoting your business, depending on its nature.
BuySellAds or Direct Buy
When looking for more display ad opportunities, BuySellAds.com is an excellent option. It provides the opportunity to pay a fixed cost to “rent” ad space on a website or blog. Alternatively, directly contacting your favorite bloggers may also uncover additional opportunities like this.
Benefits of Paid Traffic
#1: Speed to Market
When it comes to speed, paid traffic offers the first advantage. To better explain this idea, let’s consider the comparison between paid advertisements and search engine optimization. While some may argue that this comparison is biased, it effectively demonstrates my point.
The process of search engine optimization or SEO involves attempting to rank your content in the search engine results pages or SERPs. SEO strategy encompasses various technical elements such as keyword research, meta data, backlinking, and more. Organic traffic is generally perceived as any traffic that does not require payment to be placed in front of.
In other words, it may take three months for a piece of content to appear as a search result, using organic marketing methods.
If you are attempting to optimize for a competitive term, it may require several months, ranging from 3 to 12+, before you start observing any progress.
By utilizing paid traffic, it is possible to observe an increase in website visits within a day.
Paid traffic and organic search traffic are both crucial for achieving business success. However, paid traffic should be prioritized due to its remarkable speed. In the domain of digital marketing, scaling is only possible after establishing a proof of concept, which is challenging to achieve without swift results.
Quickly & Easily Test Campaign Elements
Another benefit of speed is that it allows you to rapidly test the effectiveness of your ppc ad.
You have the opportunity to test various aspects of your advertising, such as ad copy, pricing, the call to action, landing pages, and ad creative, among other things. What’s more, you can conduct these tests in a fast and efficient manner.
Testing paid advertising removes uncertainty and can be done quickly and inexpensively due to the speedy nature of paid traffic.
#2: Analytics You Can Actually Track
Paid traffic also offers the advantage of having analytics that support it.
Privacy-first initiatives are depriving us of a limited number of data points in organic, social media, and email marketing.
As you pay for the traffic, the advertising networks like Google AdWords, Facebook, Bing ads, etc. are obligated to provide you with this information.
The Conversion Path
The conversion path refers to the series of events that a user follows prior to engaging in a desired action. Monitoring the conversion path and identifying the typical behaviors exhibited by your most valuable customers is crucial.
Tracking the conversion path with free traffic poses a challenge.
Due to the iOS 15 update, email marketing no longer provides metrics such as open or click through rates, resulting in a significant variation in the information available for organic social traffic.
However, advertising networks grant paid advertising customers access to advanced and detailed analytics because they prioritize the substantial revenue generated by advertisements. By monitoring the conversion path, one gains an understanding of the narrative essential for convincing individuals to convert.
#3: Optimization of Every Element of the Campaign
Who are the recipients of this paid advertisement? In which location is the conversion taking place? At what time does our social media advertisement achieve the highest performance?
In a paid advertising scenario, you have the ability to optimize every element with small adjustments. However, it is not possible to optimize or modify these factors in any other environment that does not involve payment.
Due to the fact that you are financially invested in your Facebook ad, Google ad, Bing ads, or any other network, you are provided with chances to improve your advertising campaign.
By carefully examining the data, you can pinpoint the exact source of disconnection. Subsequently, you can make minor adjustments to enhance the long-term effectiveness of your paid search advertisement.
Just like the analogy of a plane being off course by 1% and eventually landing in a different country, your campaigns will follow a similar pattern.
Paid traffic offers the significant advantage of being able to optimize your campaigns.
#4: Enhanced Customer Targeting
Targeting is one of the significant distinctions between free traffic and paid traffic. When using paid traffic, you have the opportunity to choose the audience for your ads. This advantage is particularly remarkable considering the extensive amount of information that ad networks possess regarding individuals.
Ad networks possess an extensive collection of 70 million demographic and psychographic profiling factors for every individual on Earth.
Who are you trying to reach with your message?
- Where do they live and work?
- What are their interests?
- Are they married?
- How much money do they make?
- What products do they buy online?
This data holds significance from a machine learning viewpoint due to several reasons. Firstly, ad networks are actively investigating the underlying purpose or intention behind users’ actions. Secondly, they seek to comprehend the factors influencing individuals to make purchases.
I must admit, it is somewhat unnerving because of their increasing proficiency. However, the more skilled they become, the greater advantage you will have.
