Stop Throwing Money Down the Toilet on Paid Search

Until the day Google is no longer synonymous with how people find out information on just about everything, your business will need to be found for keyword phrases pivotal to your profits. The lack of a sound Paid Search game plan and skills to execute it is detrimental to maximizing revenue from the this channel. However, many are ecommerce sites are too timid or scared to tackle Paid Search properly.

Google and Bing are fantastic resources to market your brand, but they are not altruistic. Without these search engines countless businesses would not have survived, let alone thrived. But without your ads, Google would never had become a household name, Yahoo! would just be another exclamation and Bing would be but a gleam in Microsoft?s eye.

You?ve got to be careful and extremely knowledgeable in this space or succumb to a minefield that can destroy budgets and kill potential for positive ROI.

If any of the following management clich?s seem too familiar, then you?re likely helping add revenue to a pair of nation?s largest companies while risking your bottom line. Here are the most likely ways your company is losing money on Paid Search advertising.

Set it and forget it

Paid Search is the wrong time to invoke a timeless infomercial catch phrase. The principle here simply take time to prepare a meal then put in the oven and walk away. Not exactly a stretch to appeal to being too busy to focus and seeking quick solutions. Quite frankly that?s where Paid Search platforms make their easy money. Don?t fret, human nature demands when handling tasks we don?t enjoy or know that much about to find the path of least resistance.

In reality, even if you take your time to setup a well-targeted campaign, it still needs constant attention and consistent nurturing. It?s been proven time and time again having a well thought out yet flexible plan and sticking to it on a daily or weekly basis is critical.

Haste Makes Waste

Too often Google Adwords and Bing AdCenter accounts are setup in minutes because they can be. After all, the appeal of being on Page 1 of major search engines in less than 30 minutes is tempting. There are countless tools provided to make it easy to find and add keywords to account, write a quick ad or two, set a budget and press go. However, this will lead to tons of unwanted visitors and wasted spend.

Take the time to really think through your audiences and what they?d be searching. Conduct extensive keyword research to find good long-tail and negative keywords. And never assume a recommended ad group is filled with closely related terms. You?ve got to read through them all!

Writers Block

But what should I write about? What else can I say? How can say anything in a 25 character headline with 70 characters to drive home my message or offer while providing a CTA?

Developing new ad copy on a routine basis is a daunting challenge to many business owners, but this simple act can have a profound impact that goes beyond a new session. Like a question, the only bad ad is the one left in your mind and not given a chance to battle for supremacy. Ongoing A/B ad testing is vital to improving your account.

Window Shopping

Would you place every product in the window of your brick and mortar store? Nope. That prime real estate is saved for items that draw in customers and show your edge over the competition. Google Shopping campaigns have become so ?easy? to use that store owners are lining to promote every widget in the inventory. Sure, it?s nice to go for the volume, but not at these costs (which is an issue for our next blog post). Instead you should be focusing budget on products you can make good margin on even after paying for non-converting clicks. Branch out to test additional products once you?re steadily making money in this fiercely competitive area.

Match Game

Can we be frank? If you?re using broad match without the modifier for any significant number of terms then you saying to the search engines feel free to show my add when you want. Exact and Phrase match are the cornerstones of long-term success. However, broad match can be a necessity for many reasons. You need to modify broad match in order to show the search algorithms the words are connect and cannot be isolated. Keep in mind, if there is an ?of?, ?how to?, ?for? or ?what is? in the keyword term you might as well start with phrase match.

Think Positive

It?s not nice to promote a negative attitude, but that?s exactly the mindset needed to save money and improve ROI. Adding keywords to the list of negative terms that do not relate to your intended audience keeps you from getting clicks from folks who never intended to convert. It also restricts unwanted impressions, which allows your ads to show in front of more-targeted searchers more often.

Your ecommerce story paved with the peaks and valleys of search engine success. Whether riding a high tide or you?re struggling to tread water, getting the most out of every dollar spent on Paid Search ad clicks is critical to ecommerce success. Make sure you?re on top of your account focusing on the bottom line and business objectives at all times or hire someone you can trust to do so.