There’s no doubt about it anymore – if you want to be successful in the business world, you need to have a well-developed online presence. There are many reasons but it is not only due to the fact that without it, you are depriving your small business of a possibility to grow internationally; or because it exposes you to a greater pool of suppliers; but it is also because even your loyal customers, such as the grandma that lives across the street from your brick-and-mortar store has started looking things up online.

Having in mind the competition, the need to be noticed in the digital world makes marketing a crucial element to boosting sales. The recommendation for 2020 is to turn your focus to paid marketing – but what exactly is paid marketing?

Defining paid search marketing

When people type certain keywords into the search bar, they usually look for some specific piece of information online, after then they make a decision on which website they would open from the number of them listed on the search. And now put yourself in the shoes of that person and answer truthfully – how often you have the patience to look past the first few options listed and let alone go to the second page of the search?

That second page might as well be non-existent because, let’s face it, to get noticed, your website needs to be among the top few. This is where paid search marketing comes to play, as a paid ad which places your website right where you want it. All of the cleverly devised content and your state-of-the-art products won’t matter if they don’t get promoted. So, paid search marketing is the ticket to getting your website out there.

How to go about it 

Many people mistakenly believe that, since it is called paid marketing, that you just need to pay money to Google and everything will work itself out. Paid search marketing is a very effective means but it still needs some effort to make things work. To put it in the simplest of terms, your business will bid against different businesses on specific keywords they wish their ads to show up for. However, the bid is not the only parameter that determines your ad rank.

How well your ad will rank is also determined by the expected click-through rate (that is, Google’s estimation on how likely the ad is to be clicked), landing page experience (i.e. how relevant the page you are sending your traffic to is in terms of somebody’s search), as well as your ad’s relevance. This complexity has motivated many entrepreneurs to leave their AdWords campaigns in the able hands of professional agencies because they tend to each detail, from the campaign’s creation and planning to monitoring.

Why focus on paid search marketing

There are always a few people that will oppose the idea of paying for something if you can, at least seemingly, have it for free. Well, from a searchers point of view, the matter is simple: paid ads make it easier for them to find what they are looking for. As for the advertiser, there are several different motivators to sway them towards paid marketing strategies.

Firstly, just think of the time you will save to achieve the same results that an SEO strategy can provide you after a longer period of time. We all know time is money, so a small investment today will save you money tomorrow. Secondly, your audience targeting will be incredibly precise especially when it comes to geographic location. And thirdly, the metrics that paid searches track will be of great help to improving your strategy and ad budget, because it tracks everything, from clicks to sales.

Useful tips about creating the ads

If you decide you want to tend to the paid search marketing on your own, here are a few tips for you to follow. You can start with your audience – to target them with precision, include geographic location to your strategy. Your paid ad will be shown for searches coming from specific countries, cities, zip codes, etc. The next step are your keywords – those words the searchers use to find a specific piece of information. 

There is a number of keyword research tools that can help you find the most optimal ones, based on their popularity and your competition. When it comes to competition, there are four different keyword match types in paid search you can choose from. Broad Match includes misspellings, synonyms, and other variations of your keyword; Broad Match Modifier allows for additional words to appear in front or behind the keyword; Phrase Match allows for whole phrases to be before and after the keyword; Exact Match is essentially your keyword or a slight variation.    

Wrapping up

All things considered, this year, it’s best you focus your marketing efforts towards paid search to achieve maximum results in the shortest time possible. Since the business world is highly competitive, it is best to be proactive and work on raising awareness about your brand so that you can expand your customer base. Gaining competitive advantage will make all the difference in your desire to build a strong online reputation as an expert in your field.