Search marketing has long been a compelling proposition, especially compared to the scattershot approach offered by traditional marketing platforms such as print and network/cable TV. It promises precise audience targeting and a verifiable return on investment.
But most business people, even marketers, don’t have the time to learn how to fully harness the intricacies of search marketing, with its incomprehensible lingo and daunting dynamic technology. So organizations look to search marketing agencies to lean on their expertise. But, like everything else, the agency’s work demands oversight, which requires at least a conceptual understanding of the tactics being employed. That’s what we’re here to provide.
Organic Search vs. Paid Search
The goal of any campaign is to increase revenue. The goal of both organic and paid search is to drive qualified traffic (shoppers with an intent to purchase) to your website by improving its visibility through enhanced user engagement and higher rankings.
Historically, there have been two main ways to achieve this: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to attract “organic” clicks, and Pay-per-Click (PPC) Ad Campaigns to capture searchers in the higher-priority ad spaces on search engine pages. Though alternative Search Engines (Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) and advertising platforms (social media, Amazon, etc.) exist—for purposes of this discussion—we’ll confine our focus mostly to Google, which has 85% of the search market share.
Historically, top-ranked organic listings listings were more prominent than paid listings—appearing at the top and bottom of the first page of the search engine results page, or SERP. But that’s no longer always the case. Google’s algorithms are continually fine-tuned to interpret the intent behind users’ queries and to serve up the most useful results—whether via paid or organic listings or, increasingly, direct answers right on the SERP.
In addition, paid ads have evolved and increased in number in the last several years and now take up more real estate on the SERP than ever before. The result is the SERP has become very busy with a variety of listings reflecting a very competitive marketplace. In most industries, to effectively compete, your organization must maximize its visibility by attaining prominent organic ranking and running paid ads.
Organic Search Overview
To gain organic visibility on the SERP, you must carefully optimize your webpages following SEO best practices. Doing this right requires an investment in time and resources. And SEO can take time to pay off, depending on your industry or product(s).&
However, once your webpage achieves a top ranking on the SERP, your listing will have significantly improved staying power, as clicks beget more clicks. Your investment in SEO will have a long-term benefit. But that’s not to say you can rest on your laurels: SEO best practices dictate that webpages be refreshed routinely to provide the best experience for searchers.
As mentioned above, Google has been fine-tuning its search algorithms to elevate high-quality (expert, authoritative, trustworthy) content on the SERP that best answers users’ search queries. That means, it’s become virtually impossible to ‘game the system’ with old-school, blackhat SEO techniques. Creating high-quality search engine-optimized content to satisfy user intent is both an art and a science requiring an experienced practitioner.
Paid Search Overview
Google Search Ads are the longstanding text-based ads that appear on the SERP in response to users’ keyword queries. Over the years, Google enhanced the functionality and visibility of its search ads, which remain an important tool in an advertiser’s toolkit. Best practices recommend strategically segmenting search ads into Branded versus Non-Branded campaigns.
PPC Ad Campaign Types and the Sales Funnel
Fast forward to today, and the Google Ads platform has evolved dramatically, now offering various purpose-built campaign types in addition to its traditional keyword-based search ads. Each of these campaign types can be deployed individually or in combination to target users at various points in the sales funnel. Users at the top of the funnel are in the early discovery phase of the sales process; users at the bottom know what they’re looking for and are almost ready to make a purchase. So, for example, a Display Ad campaign geared toward brand awareness might be deployed to target top-of-the-funnel users (TOFU), whereas a Shopping, Pmax, or Search Ad campaign would be most effective at targeting middle- or bottom-of-the-funnel users (BOFU).
Here’s a brief summary of Google’s most popular ad campaign types:
Standard Shopping Campaigns
Google Ads Shopping Campaigns enable ecommerce merchants to display their product line directly on the SERP, complete with images, product details, and pricing. The product listings are generated by a shopping feed the advertiser must set up in Google Merchant Center. It’s critical to optimize and dynamically update the shopping feed to accurately display availability, pricing, shipping cost, etc.; otherwise, Google will issue a warning, or worse, suspend the campaign. Given Shopping Ads’ visibility and prominence on the SERP, it’s no surprise these ads account for 75% of all Google Ads clicks. For the majority of product lines, the investment in an optimal setup will assure a healthy ongoing return in increased ecomm sales.
Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns
Introduced in late 2021, PMax ad campaigns enable advertisers to efficiently reach potential customers across all of Google’s advertising channels, including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, and Gmail. Using machine learning to optimize ads and bidding for conversions within the advertiser’s budget and desired goals, PMax automates much of the challenging and time-consuming work involved in developing a far-reaching ad campaign with pinpoint targeting. PMax, along with Standard Shopping, targets middle- to bottom-of-the-sales-funnel users.
Note: With its advanced automation, a PMax campaign must be set up by advertisers in such a way not to cannibalize other online marketing campaigns.
Display Campaigns
Display ads consist of images, videos, or GIFs combined with copy that can be shown across the Google Display Network (GDN): websites, social media platforms, apps, and more, reaching over 90% of internet users. These ads can be targeted to a particular audience and they’re useful for high-level branding, lead generation, and driving traffic to your website.
Video Campaigns
Video ads can run on YouTube or other platforms across the GDN. They’re very effective at capturing targeted users’ attention, which makes them a valuable promotional tool. Note that creating eye-catching professional videos generally involves a professional videographer, which increases a marketer’s level of investment compared to, say, text-based ads.
Busy SERP: How Does a Marketer Compete?
Marketers face an enormous challenge to maintain/increase their search visibility on today’s very busy SERP. This is not an endeavor for the faint of heart. And, one last point to address the 800-pound gorilla in the room: AI/SGE/Chat bots/you-name-it-related tools, rather than offering a quick fix, have added an exponential level of complexity to the challenge. The solution? Work with knowledgeable professionals whose mission is to keep up with ever-changing Search Marketing technology and techniques. Contact us today—we can help.
