No doubt about it-- search engine marketing is a proven and highly effective way to generate business on the internet. But executing a truly successful search campaign isn't always simple. It presents a number of technical and administrative challenges, and increasingly, it's becoming a very expensive buy.
With more and more effort and budget at stake, marketers must be more vigilant than ever about optimizing keyword bids and ensuring they extract as much value as possible from their online media plan. One excellent way to do just that is to leverage an online advertising network. A network will help you make the most not only of your search listing, but also every click it generates.
Networks enable integration
One way marketers can improve the performance of their search programs is by making search part of an integrated marketing plan. Integration can help you capitalize on the audience generated by search campaigns, employing other online tools to turn interested browsers into purchasing customers. Networks support this model by enabling marketers to optimize their online media buys across multiple channels, including display, search, affiliate, behavioral and video-- all with one buy.
With an integrated approach, marketers also can reach consumers at different stages in the buying cycle to generate the maximum revenue during peak seasons. For example, using a high impact rich media or video campaign in the beginning of the cycle can help guarantee mass exposure and awareness -- and resulting keyword searches -- for a product or service. Following up with a search campaign will ensure you connect with these consumers as they begin the selection process.
Then, once your search campaign has helped you generate interested consumers, behavioral targeting can be the bridge to conversion. Networks give marketers wide-reaching access to a broad variety of sites so that the site visitors generated by a search listing can be re-targeted virtually anywhere online.
Adding behavioral retargeting to a search campaign can help convert users who clicked, drive repeat purchases and increase your overall conversion rate while lowering your effective cost-per-action.
Furthermore, while search is limited to generic text listings, behavioral targeting enables you to follow up with a more compelling sales message, using ads that are tailored to the user's online activity. Rather than simply hoping that the consumer will return to your site after researching or comparing prices across the net, you can take action-- serving up your most powerful message or promotion all across the network.
The key to optimization
Perhaps the biggest advantage of launching a search campaign with a network is the ability to continually optimize the campaign based on performance across multiple channels. In other words, networks provide the ability to examine the entire campaign to see what keywords are performing well and apply the data to your search strategy (and vise versa). For example, if a marketer finds that a banner ad featuring a $10 off promotion converts better than one featuring a "buy one get one free" promotion, they can immediately adjust search term listings accordingly.
Conclusion
Search can be very effective for just about any kind of online business. But the costs and complexity of search make it important to have a sound follow-through strategy in place. Networks can be the ideal foundation for that strategy.
A network model offers the unparalleled reach, multi-channel integration, critical retargeting options and optimization capabilities necessary to ensure your search campaigns pay off. Use search to generate an interested and aware audience. Use a network to make the most of that audience.
Mollie Spilman is chief sales and marketing officer of Advertising.com. Read full bio.
