In my series of questions you should ask blogs, let’s move on to paid search. It is one of Google’s trickiest and fastest return on investment platforms.
It is important to remember that you need to go in, like everything in life, with a game plan, a budget, and a clear idea of what you are looking to accomplish. You don’t give a sales girl $400 and say pick clothes for me! This (for me, anyway) is how it goes.
- Browse. Work out what fits, is cute, and in your budget
- Try it on. You need to test the waters.
- Buy (remembering if need be, you can exchange)
Buying clothes is similar (to a point) to PPC. You need to do your research. Most people go with agencies to help them in their quest for the best ROI. Here are a few questions you should ask before you go ahead and take the plunge.
Are you a Google certified partner?
This is good question. It basically means that with this status you have access to Google support reps and agency helpers who can help optimize your campaigns as needed.
How do you measure success with my campaign?
Easy. CPL and CPA being able to accurately show you your cost per lead, showing decreased cost per lead and growth in engagement with paid search traffic. If it is branding, we should see growth in overall display traffic.
Will I have access to reporting?
The answer here should always be yes. If you want to run a successful campaign, there will often be failures in the first couple of months. It is par for the course, so don’t panic if you find your strategy is altered based on results from your reports, it means the agency is doing their job right.
Will this impact my SEO?
Unfortunately, no. The reason the two are so closely linked, is that when you have a good PPC and SEO strategy, you have what is called page saturation, which has been proven to increase conversion.
Once again, these are some helpful questions to guide in your fight for Google domination! (I really like that phrase).
Until next time. Stay optimized, folks. Stay optimized.
