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So now that we know broadly what paid search is, let's look at why we might use it and I mean the why and the understanding of how to deploy paid search as part of your digital media mix, is essential to getting the best out of the channel.
Like everything we do in any kind of organization, we always begin with our business objective. What is it ultimately that we want to do?
What is it that we want our consumers to do? Is it buy online? Is it download a brochure? Is it make contact? Is it just visit the website? What exactly is our business objective and how can we translate that into search? So, when we begin with that, we can start building our keywords list, and so on around that.
It gives us immediate access to a market because based on that consumer journey, people have a need state, they have a need state that needs to be resolved, and that's what's called intent. And if they have intent, they are essentially saying, "I'm here ready to be spoken to."
They've asked a question to Google and you will give them an answer back in the form of a search ad.
Mobile positioning is always very important.
I can't emphasize this enough. Intent is the key difference here and the most powerful aspect of search marketing.
Now, search marketing is paid search and organic search. And again, we have mentioned that sometimes there are gaps in organic search, which paid search can fill, and that's organic optimization.
I've also mentioned things like site links and other stuff that differentiate paid search from organic search. And these are the advertising features and advertising enhancements from everything from tracking to site links to different, and just I suppose, improvements of the search experience to make consumers more likely to click on the ad.
That will feed into things like our ad rank, which is a formula we'll discuss later, and because there was a major change to ad rank that has to be considered beyond the original formula that Google had released a number of years ago. As I said, it takes time to optimize for organic. With paid search, it's almost instantaneous.
You can make a copy change in paid search campaign, and it can be there in 25 minutes. So, if you have a time-sensitive promotion –such as “Offer ends Sunday!” or “Offer ends at 2 p.m.” – you can make that copy change to your campaigns, and it will be there live for the consumer, when they have a need state, when they go to Google and look for whatever it is they desire, your offer will be there.
So, the time-sensitive nature of paid search is a very powerful consideration that we must have in the back of our mind, when we're approaching any search campaign
Everyone's doing it. Everyone is on paid search. All your competitors are there. So, if you're not there, you're essentially losing the most qualified traffic.
Again, these are people looking for your product, and if your competitors are there and you're not there, the people who are looking for your product are going to your competitors. So, you have to be there. Now, there are ways to optimize this and that's what we'll talk about in the optimization stage a little later on.
What are the key benefits of paid search?
Please note that the module slides are designed to work in collaboration with the module transcript document. It is recommended that you use both resources simultaneously.
Cathal Melinn is a well-known digital marketing director, commercial analyst, and ecommerce specialist with over 15 years’ experience.
Cathal is a respected international conference speaker, course lecturer, and digital trainer. He specialises in driving complete understanding from students across a number of digital marketing disciplines including: paid and organic search (PPC and SEO), analytics, strategy and planning, social media, reporting, and optimisition. Cathal works with digital professionals in over 80 countries and teaches at all levels of experience from beginner to advanced.
Alongside his training and course work, Cathal runs his own digital marketing agency and is considered an analytics and revenue generating guru - at enterprise level. He has extensive local and international experience working with top B2B and B2C brands across multiple industries.
Over his career, Cathal has worked client-Side, in digital marketing agencies and media owners with brands including HSBC, Amazon, Apple, Red Bull, Dell, Vodafone, Compare the Market, Aer Lingus, and Expedia.
He can be reached on LinkedIn here.
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ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE
This module begins with the fundamentals of paid search and demonstrates how to implement and manage paid search campaigns using Google Ads. It explains the key concepts underpinning bid auctions, how to manage paid advertising budgets, and how to optimize paid search campaigns. It also covers conversion tracking and how to measure and report on the performance of paid search campaigns using Google Analytics and Google Search Console.