Basic Paid Search Principles

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

What is paid search?

Paid search is a way to use marketing tools to place your business at the top of the search results when someone is looking online. Google is the most used search engine in most of the world and, for this module, we’re going to focus on its advertising tool, which is known as Google Ads.

How do people use search engines?

In today’s world, most people use search engines as a utility. It is a part of how they manage their life and their decision making. So, they use Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others as an assistant to help them find content, buy products, and help them decide on a course of action or purchase. Most people trust search engines to provide accurate and honest answers to their questions.

You can think of Google as being a questions and answers machine. People ask it all kinds of questions and then they click the Search button to see the answers. They will browse the results that Google recommends to help them find a solution to what they are asking. So, when someone asks Google a question and your business appears at the top of the search results, Google is recommending your business as the solution to their needs. This is a very powerful interaction with a potential customer.

Think about the last search you did. What were you trying to achieve? Were you able to complete the action after searching online? This is the value of search engines as a utility to consumers and businesses. Consumers get to find the products and info they want, and businesses have access to groups of people who are actively looking for what they do or sell. If you are at the top of the search results when people are looking for what your business sells or does, this can drive a lot of revenue and sales for your organization, and the fastest way to the top of the search results is to use Paid Search.

Paid search advertising tools

With paid search, we can use advertising tools to input several keywords into our campaigns. If people search for any of these keywords, you are basically telling the search engine you are willing to pay to be in position 1, 2, 3, or 4 at the top of the search results page.

This is an important thing to note about paid search - sometimes known as PPC or pay per click - the advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad. So, if people search for your keywords and for whatever reason they choose not to click your ad, you do not pay. You only pay when someone chooses you as their answer and clicks your ad.

Search intent

This is what’s known as search intent. The process begins with the person searching online to help them find a solution or complete a task, such as buying or browsing content. Search intent is a powerful motivator. The person is already in the market for what they are searching for and are more likely to buy, or take other action when they find it. They intend to do something. And as the process begins with them, we can harness their need to find a solution and present ourselves as the recommendation at the top of Google. All of this can lead to more business for you or your clients.

Inbound and outbound marketing

We can further understand the concept of search intent in terms of wider digital marketing if we break digital marketing into two broad categories, which are known as inbound and outbound marketing.

Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing is something we are all familiar with in relation to promoted content on social media as well as traditional channels like TV commercials, radio spots, and print ads.

That is, businesses and brands are showing ads to us because we fit a certain profile. They are pushing their message out to their audience in the hope that it will resonate. For example, when you are watching TV or scrolling on Instagram, you are not necessarily looking for the ads you see. However, because of your characteristics and habits, you fit a certain profile that the business wants to reach with their ads. This is known as outbound marketing.

The engagement starts with the business. They interrupt whatever their audience is doing to show them ad content. As the audience isn’t necessarily looking for the product or ad, they are likely to ignore it. So why do we do outbound marketing? The purpose of outbound marketing is to show the ads to your target audience enough times that they remember your message. This will help create product or brand awareness in people who might be interested in what you do.

Inbound marketing

The second marketing category is known as inbound marketing, and this is what we should be looking at when it comes to search engines. Search marking is a pure inbound marketing channel. The process begins with the searcher looking for solutions online. It’s almost like the searcher is coming in towards the brand because they are actively seeking what the brand or business sells, or does.

So, while outbound marketing starts with the brand pushing their message out to an audience who might not be actively looking or in the market at present, inbound marketing is a much more powerful sales channel because the process starts with the consumer looking for brands that can resolve their needs. They are in the market for what you do. As a result, there is a much higher likelihood that the audience will take action with inbound marketing. After all, they are actively looking and intend to act, as opposed to outbound channels where the audience is much more passive.