For those companies that think that using search engine optimisation as a advertising method is too slow for their needs, there is always bought advertising, especially of the pay-per-click variety. Many online marketing consultants recommend that any online marketing strategy should include a variety of channels. If the ambition of your search optimization plan is to gain an organic search engine positioning on Google page one for your enterprise’s pages, then it would be reasonable to consider using Google’s AdWords as the pay-per-click channel of choice – but using AdWords does not seem to be as simple as Google suggest.

Your Google AdWords campaign is driven by keywords, so someone will need to perform the same type of keyword analysis that is usually part of search engine optimisation. Then it is a matter of constructing a relevant but concise advert that appears similar to the text returned with an organic search engine positioning, and then deciding how much to pay for the advert. While it is true that the advert only incurs a payment when it is clicked, the price of that click may alter according to time of day and competition from rival companies operating campaigns on the same keywords. The internal auction process can be very difficult to master, and there is no guarantee that your advert will be shown.

Google will usually display up to ten sponsored entries alongside the ten natural results. The three adverts that have made the highest bids will be placed directly above the natural results, and any others as a separate list to the right – which is likely to be ignored while the searcher concentrates on the main results listing. As more potential customers perform searches on mobile devices, those sponsored entries to the right stand even less chance of being visible. This is turning into a major worry for Google and the other search engines with their equivalent schemes.

There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that most clients performing a search request will deliberately bypass the sponsored result and trust the natural search engine positioning. If an organization is operating a website that has been well optimised, there may be repeated entries in the sponsored and natural parts of the results page, which suggests that the pay-per-click campaign is pointless. In those circumstances, the searcher may respond to the paid reference instead of the natural entry, just to make the company pay for a visit it could have received for free. Using search optimization plans could encourage more potential customers at far lower expense and more simply. This is not to suggest that search optimisation can be performed simply to its fullest extent by anyone without some insight.

To get the most out of an advertising system such as AdWords takes a lot of effort, far more than many company owners realise. Google want clients to think that any small business can be up and running in minutes, but even some pay-per-click consultants can find the nuances a challenge. It may prove very costly for the quantity of additional website clients it generates, particularly if you are forced to raise your bids to advertise popular keywords. Even running a short-term campaign can prove costly. For a small business, using search engine optimisation can be more effective at a much lower cost, and could possibly be manageable in-house without the use of a professional search optimization consultancy.

Tagged with: • • • •

Filed under: Online Business, Promotion and Marketing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!