Introduction
Starting and managing large-scale campaigns can be a daunting task. You not only need to target and achieve your business goals from clicks to conversions, revenue, and more, but you also need to have a proper structure in place to run, manage, and maintain the campaign’s effectiveness. This can be even more so in case of large-scale campaigns.
This is where Search Engine Marketing can play a hugely critical role.
What makes it so good is it is a conveniently customization product. It can not only manage large-scale campaigns effectively but can also enable your business to see quick growth or results. More importantly, it can produce great results even if the organic digital marketing strategy or SEO is not able to generate results.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)
Basically, SEM is a broader concept. It includes both SEO and PPC together.
In a general sense, it either refers to a technique that uses search engines like Bing, Google, etc, to fuel traffic drive to your website, or simply generate leads; or a marketing strategy that involves managing a brand or website’s total presence in search engines.
Overall, it refers to a mix of strategies and techniques used to fuel greater visitor-traffic from SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) to a website.
Its goal is to enhance the visibility of a website, leveraging a combination of paid-search contextual advertising and organic search rankings.
To successfully manage a large-scale SEM campaign, the structure of the campaign plays a key role. A proper structure will ensure a healthy foundation for the campaign to flourish over a two to four year period. Leveraging the expert search engine marketing services of top Search Engine Marketing Company, ITXITPro will help you to create and sustain a viable campaign structure that will work successfully for long.
ITXITPro also explains in this blog post, what kind of SEO practices needs to be adopted to manage large-scale campaigns.
BEST SEM PRACTICES
Managing large-scale SEM (Search Engine Marketing) campaigns is not so easy, especially in the age of the high-speed Internet.
Success of a Search Engine Marketing campaign does not depend on just the quality of a product or service, but also depends on smart planning, management, and execution of the campaign, allied with the ability to reach the right audience that’s well-supplemented by the right campaign theme and presentation.
If you tick all the right boxes, the campaign results will be successful.
ITXITPro outlines the best SEM practices for managing large-scale campaigns.
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RESEARCHING AND UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET MARKET
Before running and looking to manage a large-scale campaign, you need to know your target-audience as well as target-market. If you’re clueless about them, it becomes difficult to launch and manage a large-scale campaign.
That’s why it is important to research and understand in-depth your target-audience and target-market.
Your research on target-audience should focus on their demographics, shopping habits, purchase requirements, average spend, pain points, and FAQs.
Similarly, to understand your target-audience, gather the appropriate insights with any one or more of the following strategies – survey of past and current clients; review of followers on your social media accounts; and reference of customer relationship management (CRM) software data.
The data gathered will help you to get a clear picture of who your audience is and should be; and what they want from your company and products/services. The more quality data you are able to gather, the more you will be able to take advantage of advanced targeting options.
LEVERAGE ADVANCED TARGETING OPTIONS
There are many companies that have been successful in excelling at Search Engine Marketing; and managing large-scale campaigns.
What made them so successful?
The answer is they use advanced targeting options in their campaigns.
A good example is that of Google Ads. By leveraging Google Ads, you will be able to proceed beyond demographic data; and narrow down your target-audience based on their interests, past behavior, topics of interest, and so on. If done successfully, you will be able to even remarket to users who have visited your website.
To stay the right course, the best practice initially for your business would be to launch its SEM campaign with focus on minimal targeting. As you gather more campaign data, you should look to implement advanced targeting options to narrow down your target-audience.
You could be wondering – why narrow down?
That’s because there could be users in a specific age-group who click on your ads, but they eventually don’t convert. To avoid this scenario again, the campaign’s theme should be modified in a way that will exclude that age-group. If done properly, it is bound to improve the performance of the campaign.
In case, you are keen that your target-audience should notice your ads and also act on them, then that can happen only if your team
- Checks the ad copy requirements on the advertising platform. If you are advertising on Google Ads, there is a 30-character limit for headlines and similarly, there is a 90-character limit for descriptions. This will allow you to check if your ad copy adheres to the character-limit and also whether the ad copy content caters to the audience’s taste.
- Modify and develop a compelling ad copy that appeals to their sentiments in terms of their needs, pain points, and queries. Additionally, it should also touch upon the unique selling points of your product/service. If done properly, the ad copy is bound to instantly grab the target audience’s attention, and convince them that your product/service is what they want.
As a leading Pay-Per-Click Agency, ITXITPro knows what kind of ad copy will work for a target-audience, and how the ad copy should be crafted in line with the target-audience tastes.
USE PROPER KEYWORDS SMARTLY
Keywords play a critical role in an ad copy content just like it plays in website or blog content.
The best SEM practice is to research keywords by looking at
- What keywords your competitors have used or are using to market their products and services.
- Meta Keywords in their HTML code.
They will give you precise insights into what kind of keywords have made your competitors successful. Once you’re clear on this, use tools for creating permutations of words. This will help you to find plurals, singulars, synonyms, etc of your intended keywords.
There are tools like Keyword Discovery, SEO For Firefox, etc, that can help you with keyword strategy, and also focus on those keywords that can benefit your campaigns. Aside from this, leverage a Google tool (said to be extremely powerful and useful) that will enable you to view statistics based on actual Google search queries; and also look at your existing site and draft a report based on the content on your site.
Make sure to select appropriate keywords that are related to your business. Like for instance, if you’re running a company engaged in mortgage related services, then find keywords that will allow you to use them in creative ways.
Similarly, if you’re looking to optimize the campaign content on the term ‘company name’, then factor in another word for it like business name.
Overall, you can consider hundreds of keywords for SEM campaigns.
You will be able to better manage large-scale campaigns if you plan your campaign properly when setting-up your campaign. Like for instance, plan beforehand to decide on Google how your ad should look like and appear. There are options ranging from Broad Match to Exact Match, Phrase Match, and even Negative Keyword. If you opt for a Broad Match, it will cause your ad to make its presence more often; while Exact Match will cause your ad to appear less number of times. The first option will maximize your ad spend while the latter option could potentially stretch your budget.
OPTIMIZE IN-LANGUAGE KEYWORDS EFFECTIVELY
When compared to other language keywords, an English keyword possesses a high-search volume on Google. However, this does not indicate that its translation in other languages will have the same kind of search volume in another language or even market.
To avoid getting into this scenario, use English keywords that reflect the in-language version that works well for the same search. Additionally, it is also recommended to perform search engine research as well as validation. This will help to determine if the specific keyword term possess a high search volume in another market or not.
A good example herein is the keyword “Smartphone”. It might receive a high search volume in English. However, its translation in other languages like German or French or an Indian language like Hindi or Kannada, might attract a lower volume of search terms than a slang word that’s commonly used in the foreign culture.
LEVERAGE THE RIGHT SEARCH ENGINES
There are many search engines today. However, no two search engines use the same algorithm techniques. Google uses different optimization techniques when compared to a Chinese search engine Baidu or Russian search engine, Yandex.
This will make it a problem for businesses looking to tap targeted users in countries like China or Russia. To reach their targeted users, they need to have strong expertise in not just the language of China or Russia but also in their culture and technology.
Hence, the best SEM practice in such a scenario would be to focus on the right search engines for each market. Enterprises should adopt an integrated approach to international SEM. This will help to determine the appropriate wording and also generate relevant messages in landing pages, ads, and social media posts.
WORK OUT YOUR PPC AD COPY APPROPRIATELY
Your PPC Ad Copy carries a lot of heft. Hence, it should be carefully developed with each character chosen and used with caution.
To choose the appropriate keywords, research and validate them. Then use them in the PCC Ad Copy in a way that will help the ad copy to get displayed and noticed when someone searches using the keyword that you adopted in the ad copy.
However, this is just half the battle won. The real challenge lies in getting the user to click on the PPC Ad. If the tone of the message does not resonate with user’s sentiments either in the domestic market or foreign market, then the ad copy may end-up as a failure and likewise, the same will be the case with your SEM campaign.
Aside from using the appropriate language tone in the PPC Ad Copy, you should also factor in the following
- SEM Ad Copy has very limited space. Additionally, the ad is shown next to other contextual advertisements for the identical keywords. Hence, the ad copy must be developed appropriately so as to entice the users. If the user does not click the ad, your ad copy will go waste even if it contains a great landing page or product/service.
- Most search engines limit the number of characters that can be used on each line of the PPC Ad. Also, bear in mind that the resultant translation of an English Ad Copy at times can exceed the limit imposed by the search engine in a foreign nation like China or Russia. In these countries, the number of words and their length are in most cases longer than other languages.
If you still feel confused, let leading PPC Company in India, ITXITPro craft your PPC Ad Copy. It will study your competitors, and also factor in focus areas from guarantees to price, selection, and value, to develop the appropriate PPC Ad Copy that works best for your PPC Campaign.
ALWAYS A/B TEST YOUR AD COPY
Just developing the PPC Ad Copy won’t suffice. You also need to A/B test the ad copy.
Generally, most SEM products come with A/B test utilities. Google AdWords program is one such. With it, you can
- Create champion/challenger situations for testing different versions of ads.
- Control the frequency with which a particular ad can be shown. This should be done based on its success to convert users.
- Define success in varied ways you like. If you consider a user coming to your landing page sufficient, then define success based on click-through rate (CTR) (a good example herein is your ad copy has 200 users checking it. In case, 3 out of 200 have clicked it, then the CTR of the ad copy is 3 percent).
- Optimize the ad copy. If you optimize the ad copy based on CTR, ensure that the ad copy possessing the highest CTR rate gets displayed the most number of times.
The way you define success will ultimately decide the way you should optimize the ad copy. Eventually, whether you optimize it based on CTR or other criteria, it all depends on how you measure ROI from your SEM campaign.
Leading PPC Company in India, ITXITPro has the requisite expertise to A/B test your PPC Ad Copy and optimize it based on the right criteria. This will help you to extract quality ROI from your SEM campaign.
ENSURE LANDING PAGES ARE APPROPRIATE
User-experience matters a lot. Hence, it is important to provide a user-friendly user-experience. This is where the landing pages matter as it is the first thing that the user will see on your site when he/she clicks on your ad in a search engine.
- Make the landing pages eye-catching. This will catch the user’s attention and encourage them to click on the SEM Ad Copy.
- Be clear on where you want the users to go to in your website once he/she clicks on the SEM Ad Copy. In majority of the cases, they are sent to the home page. But the thing is will it serve the purpose for which it was intended? If not, better to create special landing pages that are closely tailored to your Ad Copy or to your SEM campaign.
It is important to prioritize your SEM Landing Pages. That’s because your landing pages can achieve fruitful results if they are well-crafted.
Aside from Landing Pages, you should also factor in Bounce Rates. Bounce Rates is what that measures the number of visits made to only a specific landing page on your site, and nowhere else on the site.
As a top Pay-Per-Click Advertising Agency, ITXITPro is well-placed to create the right landing page that will entice the users to click on the ad copy.
ALWAYS GIVE PRIORITY TO CONTENT
It is said that ‘Content is King’.
That’s true even with ad copies and landing pages.
Your ad may look great and your ad copy may have the right keywords. But if the landing pages tied to your ads does not provide relevant information sought by the visitors, then it will not meet with success with your international search engine marketing.
Hence, the best SEM practice is
- Ad copy as well as landing page must contain rich and relevant information inclusive of the right keywords. In case of custom landing page that is tied to your campaign, make sure it contains a spot where the customer register; and get a quote; and also contains ‘Contact Us’ Details; and a slot where customer make a purchase.
- Appropriate localization of ad copy tied with international SEO. Then only your content will be useful to visitors and make it easy for them to convert.
The easier you make it for a visitor to convert, the greater success you can achieve with your international search engine marketing campaigns.
ITXITPro offers Content Marketing as a part of its Search Engine Marketing services. By leveraging its skills, you stand to extract the best content for your ad copies as well as websites.
HARNESS THE POWER OF ANALYTICS
To evaluate your SEM campaign and find out whether it is a success of not, leverage your site analytics, like Google Analytics which integrates Google keyword campaigns.
This will help you to
- Evaluate the SEM campaigns in comparison to your SEO and other campaigns.
- Know whether the conversion rates set by you for the SEM campaigns are achievable OR not.
ITXITPro, as a leading Search Engine Marketing Company, possess strong skills in analytics and knows how what kind of analytic tools should be leveraged and how best they can be leveraged to extract the best possible results that matter.
CONCLUSION
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign offers a great opportunity to convert money into more money.
But it consumes a lot of efforts and involves a lot of work. From Ad Creation to variations; to conversion tracking; optimization of landing pages; and more, a lot of study is involved. Additionally, you also need to observe which ad and keywords groups; and landing pages are the top performers; and which tests needs to be conducted.
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This is where leading Search Engine Marketing Company, ITXITPro can play a key role in overseeing and managing the campaign. Additionally, it offers search engine marketing services that will give you valued insights to set-up large scale campaigns and manage them effectively.