There’s a lot that goes into increasing brand awareness online. You’ve taken the time to optimize your website. Your content is fresh, helpful, and relevant. Your customer-centric website has a strong focus on user experience, and you know exactly who would benefit from your product or service. You‘re committed to improving your website through continual search engine optimization, but you need to attract visitors to your website now.
It might be time to increase brand awareness with paid search advertising.
Businesses from all industries rely on paid advertising to increase website traffic, opening the door to greater brand awareness and opportunities.
What Is Paid Search?
Paid search is a keyword-focused digital advertising tactic often referred to as pay-per-click or search engine marketing. The written content from your advertisements and the associated website landing page is centered around specific keywords. Paid search ties information together and connects the dots between a search query and the solution found on your website.
See for yourself. Go to your favorite search engine, like Google or Bing. Type in a specific query about any product or service. On most searches, the top 1-4 results are pay-per-click advertisements. Since paid search advertising runs on a bidding system, the more competitive a keyword, the more expensive it is for the advertiser. Pay-per-click is exactly what the title suggests — advertising where you pay for each click on your ad.
There are over 7 billion Google searches made every day, making paid search one of the most effective forms of advertising. Since we can typically discern search query intent, budgeting for advertising spend to increase website exposure has never been more important.
How Does Paid Search Increase Brand Awareness?
How familiar are you with the HubSpot Flywheel? If you are an inbound marketing practitioner, this concept is nothing new. However, you might be surprised to learn that paid search advertising is an excellent way to attract new prospects and get your flywheel spinning.
Attract Strangers, Convert Prospects
Strangers on the internet are searching for your product or service. They have an idea of what they want and are looking for very specific results. Your challenge is letting them know you exist!
Luckily you are an inbound marketing professional who understands the importance of user intent. You focus on the meaning and intent behind words on a website, search query, or digital content. You understand the buyer journey, customer needs, and how each piece of content helps in that process. It is time to lean into your website content and attract more visitors to your business.
Consumer Intent
The way consumers make decisions on how they spend their money has shifted in recent years due to the online presence of most businesses. The opportunity to do product research before setting foot in a store or talking to a salesperson has resulted in consumers spending far less time in physical stores or in a formal sales process. The internet has made it easier than ever to make informed decisions about products and services independently. Establishing digital brand trust is essential to modern-day success.
Whether a consumer is searching for a specific product such as “running shoes” or inquiring about an even broader term such as “marathon running”, the consumer intent is there. Yes, I may be running my first marathon this month so both marathon running and running shoes have been very active in my search history. It’s up to the marketer to recognize that intent and engage with the consumer in a relevant and timely fashion.
As many discover, the path to understanding consumer behavior requires experimentation. It is understanding what works and what doesn’t work. The most successful marketers are the ones who are willing to test and analyze their campaigns. Paid search advertising is no different when it comes to data collection.
Build Trust, Collect Data
With every new visitor to your website, you’re able to collect more information about who is engaging with your content. The data you collect tells you a lot about who these consumers are, what they’re searching for, and the intent behind it. The more you know about their demographics and psychographics, the more efficiently you will be able to craft messages that speak to their interests.
Successful marketers determine the success of search campaigns with brand-central metrics. These might include metrics such as ad impressions, website visits (via ad clicks), and engagement actions such as time on page, bounce rate, and other KPIs which would indicate whether the desired action was taken.
By taking all data into consideration, marketers can actively improve their website content, user experience, and understanding of consumer behavior. All of these items feed into quality score in your search ads and can impact your cost per click as well as ad position.
Don’t Sleep On Paid Search
Like every competitive company in the market today, digital marketing and establishing an online presence are essential to long-term success. People tend to make decisions based on their own research and conclusions. Why not utilize every available resource to make those decisions easier?
Paid search advertising is your opportunity to grow business influence and position that influence at the top of search engine result pages. It’s time to wake up and not sleep on advertising anymore.
Interested In Paid Search Advertising?
Our digital advertising strategies leverage digital channels through uniquely targeted advertising campaigns to find your ideal customer without wasting time weeding out unqualified leads. Click on Buzzy for more information.