Back to the Basics

Katherine Bennett - October 2, 2009

It seems that some people tend to think that search marketing campaigns are magic. That “If you build it, they will come.” In theory, that is true. However, building a search marketing campaign is only half the battle. The next steps are to analyze the data so that the necessary adjustments can be made to the campaign to create an even better outcome. Three key components to analyze and improve are keywords, ad copy and landing pages.

Keywords are necessary for any search marketing campaigns; however the right keywords along with the right ad copy are even more essential. Keywords direct users to your ad copy, which if clicked on leads searchers to your landing page. If your keywords lead a searcher to ad copy that doesn’t make sense, they’re not likely to click on the ad. What some fail to realize is that match type and keyword grouping also play a significant part in the success of keywords.  If you use broad match, for a general keyword, you’ll reach a lot of searchers, but a good percentage of those searchers may not be in the target you’re trying to reach. If you use phrase match, you will limit the number of searchers who see your ad, however the searchers will probably be more qualified. If you use exact match, you’ll only get the people who search for your exact terms, but you’ll miss a great deal of people who could have been potential customers. The best way to solve this is to test and to use negative keywords. Plus you want to make sure your ad copy is relevant. Ad copy plays a key role in the success of a campaign and leads the searcher to your landing page. 

Landing pages have a critical role in the success of a campaign because they have a great affect on how a searcher will respond. Make sure searchers are being sent to relevant landing page. It is very annoying to click on an ad only to be led to a page isn’t relevant.  This will cause searchers to leave a website as soon as they get there. Landing pages should coincide with the ad copy. If you’re a camera store and you’re advertising, Canon Powershots, send the user to the Cannon Powershot page, not the Nikon page. It will improve the results.

It may seem elementary, but if a search marketing campaign doesn’t get the basics right, it will fail no matter how much money is thrown at it. The best steps to take are to focus on the fundamentals; from there the results will follow.