How to Optimize Your Search Marketing Campaign

Search marketing is far and away the most effective method of driving targeted traffic to a business website. Its importance to generating new business will only increase: A recently-released study by the private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson suggests that Internet ad spending will total nearly $62 billion by 2011, surpassing all other media. National internet advertising spending, which includes search engine marketing, will make up the lion’s share of these dollars with an estimated $38 billion.

Despite significant (and significantly growing) investments in this advertising medium, many businesses fail to take full advantage of their search marketing spending by converting clicks into customers, says Chris Finnegan, Director of Online Marketing of national Internet marketing firm TruePresence. He says landing pages are the key to landing customers online.

“A landing page serves as the first destination a visitor “lands” on after clicking on a link or an advertisement,” explains Finnegan. “By creating one or more pages with content directly related to the keyword search or advertisement that brought a visitor to your site, you’re much more likely to convert them into customers.” Continue Reading…

How to Avoid Them and Help Your Business Grow

Simple as it may be to set up a paid search campaign with the help of popular do-it-yourself programs such as Google AdWords, it is not so simple to get it right. Many companies waste money and don’t maximize their online presence. TruePresence presents The Seven Deadly Sins of Search Marketing based on years of industry expertise and analysis.

First, some background: According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), North American advertisers spent $9.4 billion on search engine marketing (SEM) in 2006, and the trade group predicts SEM spending will double by 2011 to more than $18 billion. A major percentage of these dollars are spent by small and medium businesses trying to get some attention on the web, and to some extent, it’s working.

But with so much money at stake, most large businesses rely on the expertise of an outside agency to create and manage paid search campaigns. The smaller guys, more often than not, go it alone without specialized support.

If you are one of those little guys dreaming big, here’s an overview of things every small-to-medium business should avoid if they want higher quality leads and lower customer acquisition costs—the hallmarks of a successful paid search campaign. Recognize any of them? If so, it might be time to take a step back and consider working with a professional, like TruePresence.

1.Inviting Too Many Guests to the Table.
When creating a keyword list, a common mistake is in thinking “more searchers and more clicks = more leads and more dollars.” Not necessarily.

Wasted clicks mean wasted dollars. It may not feel natural, but it is crucial to limit your audience, and therefore, create a targeted keyword list for your campaign. You want to attract the RIGHT visitors to your site—the ones who are actively looking for YOU and your business, specifically, not just something loosely related to you. Continue Reading…