The role paid search plays in an online marketing campaign should not be underestimated.
Just this week, two business owners expressed their skepticism about Google Adwords, because they felt the platform seemed to intrude on consumers and didn’t seem to be a legitimate course of advertising.
They asked for input and clarification; and, in the opinion of a major SEO firm: spend as much money as is feasibly affordable on paid search while increasing your organic presence – and even then – spend more, more and more. If you can.
The SEO industry is probably one of the most saturated, but then again, so is the HVAC industry. However, nothing beats a paid search campaign. One leading SEO firm has some great rankings on page 1 of Google. When they aren’t running on Google Adwords, they can feel it. It can mean the difference of having 2-3 leads per day versus up to 10 leads a day.
The consumer shift has changed over the years. In last month’s technology blog, we talked about Google trends. If we take the same formulas and apply it to Google Adwords, you can see how attitudes have possibly changed over the years.
The other main characteristic with Adwords, is the sheer ability to get to page 1 immediately. A business owner recently asked for advice on and a timeline for getting to page 1 for Wedding Dresses. It was advised that he would unlikely see any page 1 results organically for well over a year, perhaps even longer, because his competition is huge. However, discern a budget to run a paid campaign and you can be there tomorrow. The return on investment is immediate. Of course, the old adage, it takes money to make money rings true.
My advice to any business contemplating a marketing campaign is this: allow a dispensable marketing budget for a constant organic push, but allot the majority of your overall budget for a Paid Search campaign. Consumers are no longer afraid of targeted ads and feel Google’s continued refinement efforts have served to help deliver a more relevant, specific ad.
