There is a lot to think about when launching and managing a B2B Search Engine Marketing campaign−keyword selection, bid management, CPC, conversaion rates, match type, ad creative, tracking. It's easy to get caught up in the mechanics and forget that 'M' stands for Marketing. The same marketing basics apply to SEM as to any other type of campaign−you need to understand your target audience and present them with content and offers that are relevant to them.
The 'M' can be particularly absent if your SEM account is managed by a third party. They may be great at using all sorts of cool optimization technologies and keyword expansion techniques, but are often not trained in marketing and certainly don't know your product and audience like you do.
Here are some pointers to keep you on the right track:
- Start with careful keyword selection and expand carefully so you're not wasting time and money garnering clicks on long shots.
- Organize your keywords into meaningful groups. This makes it easier to manage the synching up of ad creative and landing pages.
- Spend some time creating ads that match up closely with your keywords and try adding a call to action.
- Take people to relevant campaign landing pages−pages specifically designed to maximize conversions from incoming search campaign traffic and tailored to a set of keywords.
- Ensure that you can track the metrics you really care about. Knowing cost per click is important, but knowing cost per lead is critical for lead generation campaigns. Tracking lead to sales conversion from your SEM campaign will give you an even better ROI picture.
While all the points above seem pretty basic, one or all are forgotten with amazing regularity even by large and well-established brands. Bid management and optimization technologies can do great things for your SEM efforts, but don't forget about the 'M' in SEM.
For some tips on writing great PPC ad copy, read Effective PPC Ad Copy 101 by Ron Jones of Clickz"s Search Engine Watch.
