Introduction
Search advertising has been an extremely lucrative benefit of putting your brand, services, or product on the first few pages from a search query. There’s no guarantee that users will click it or even read it, however—that often depends on the quality of the ad itself.
By allowing potential customers to come to you as they’re seeking out the specific product or service you provide, it can become extremely targeted. Search advertising is really quick to execute, has flexibility to optimize, and is very cost effective. One of my favorite things about digital marketing is being able to deliver the data to back up my efforts. Google Ads is no exception to this, as it allows you to measure results for each ad, each keyword, and even each user. Connecting your campaigns with a Google Analytics account helps determine what’s working and what’s not working in a search campaign.
Top Search Advertising Tools
1) Google Ads
Google’s massive reach is pretty crazy. The search engine handles around 2+trillion searches per year so there’s definitely something for every business and every prospect at every stage of the customer’s journey. The biggest difference between the individuals you’re reaching with Google Ads and the people you’re reaching with other forms of advertising like social media is their search intent.
On social media, people aren’t looking to be advertised to. On search networks, you’re advertising to people who are looking for something specific and it helps them find the answer instead of interrupting their online browsing experience. When you get started with Google, your chance of hopping over all of the organic results on a search engine results page grows exponentially.
This has been one of the most powerful platforms I have ever used that produces the best ROI/ROAS.
The Advantages of Search Advertising:
- Remedy for Poor Organic Traffic
- Focus on Intent Marketing
- Unobtrusiveness
- Resistance to AdBlock
- Mobile Advertising
- Huge Reach
I would recommend getting the free Google Ads Search & Display and Google Analytics Certificate to bolster your knowledge of Google’s platforms. It definitely helped me when I first started working where I was never taught about it in college and had no prior knowledge of it.
2) Yahoo/Bing Ads
Bing Ads, which is owned by Microsoft, has three search engines including Bing, Yahoo, and AOL. Bing and Google are definitely complementary of each other and you can get the best results when used together. However, Google has much better return on investment and return on ad spend from my experience.
Bing also offers a keyword research tool, broad match, and negative keyword targeting. The main difference between Bing and google is that Google has a lot more traffic. However, because there is less competition Bing PPC and clicks are typically cheaper so that advertisers get more for their dollar.
Google may be the king of digital ads, but Bing is the perfect complement to your PPC strategy where it can expand the reach into new and unique areas.
Similar to Google Certifications, I would recommend getting the free Bing Ads Certification to fully understand the ins and outs of the tool. There’s no better way to learn than through free certifications and hands on experience with the tools.
