How do I know if I should start Search Engine Marketing?
The vast majority of companies can benefit from running an SEM campaign. If you rely on website traffic to drive leads or sales to your business, then increasing your qualified website traffic means you have a great chance of connecting with more customers.
If your website:
- Allows you to target your audience specifically
- Allows you to reconcile ad spend versus conversions (could be online sales, qualified leads etc)
How should I plan my campaign?
Google AdWords is a prominent example of an advertising service that can be used to effectively run an extensive advertising campaign fully online. All campaign strategy planning should start with determining what your business goals are.
For example, if you are a B2C business looking to increase Brand awareness in Hong Kong, one of your goals is to be seen by as many customers in Hong Kong. You may find that using the Google Display Network with targeted placements, under a 'cost per impression' (CPM) model works best for you.
On the other hand, if you are an ecommerce business trying to increase sales to Hong Kong customers, then you will want to target customers who are in the market for your products and services and are based in Hong Kong. As a result, you are likely to invest more in targeted keyword searches made on search engines like Google.
Planning for conversions
It is important that if you are running a paid advertising campaign, that you have stated and measurable goals so that you can determine a return on your investment, as well as adjust how you are using your budget as soon as you are able to determine which ads you are running are performing better than others.
The quality of your website and how streamlined the user experience is will have a profound effect on how well your traffic converts. At Digital Butter, we take conversion optimization very seriously, and make recommendations to our clients prior to starting an advertising campaign on what can be improved on their websites before they begin to spend money on acquiring traffic to it.
How much should I budget?
Factors for determining a budget essentially boil down to how much competition there is in the space you operate within, and how much you are prepared to pay to acquire a new or repeat customer.
How do I get started with SEM?
Deciding on whether to run your SEM campaigns in-house or with a digital marketing agency comes down to the scale and complexity of your campaign, as well as whether or not you have experienced resources available at your company to properly setup, maintain, report and optimize your campaigns on an ongoing basis.
Working with AdWords certified experienced professionals can help to ensure you don't make basic mistakes which could lead to spending more than you need to for the same outcomes.
Check out our Digital Advertising page. If you would like to discuss a potential SEM project with us, please get in touch!
