SEM Round Up: Must Knows For Small Businesses

Taylor Walker

Search Engine Marketing is one of the most commonly used channels by business owners large and small.

It’s a great tool to reach users browsing on search engines like Google or Bing and in turn drive them to you businesses website. But wait.. every click does cost!

Before flipping the switch on your small business SEM campaigns you must know a few things!

Determine Your Budget

Determining how much you can spend on SEM is the first step in a successful SEM strategy.

If you have no clue how to determine what you’re able to afford, back track to this customer lifetime value lesson to get you started on the right foot! Once you have a good idea what type of budget you have on hand, think about the ultimate goal of the campaigns.

Are you trying to raise brand awareness? Maybe you’re looking for more e-commerce sales?

This will be a huge driver in how much budget you should allocate to the different types of campaigns you run.

The biggest tip of all- don’t take the ‘recommended budget’ from Google or Microsoft Ads to heart. Ultimately, the more you spend on Google and Microsoft, the more cash lands in their pocket. Understand that it takes more than an algorithm to properly set up the appropriate budget.

Go Local

Geography and targeted locations plays a huge part in not only how much you need to spend on SEM ads, but how relevant the users are that you’re targeting.

If you’re feeling optimistic about a 100 mile radius surrounding your brick and mortar store. Pause. Take a look at sales data and see if that town, an hour away is actually generating sales for your business. If there’s no data linked to a location, you can probably exclude it from your targeted geography when you’re getting started. There may be opportunities down the line to experiment with thise outliers and drive awareness.

Best practice here is hitting close to home- go local and hone in on the customers in your backyard, then expand.

Quality Keywords

The real meat and potatoes of your SEM ads… keywords! These are the terms you’ll be using that budget on and boy do they matter.

To make your budget go the farthest for the least amount of budget, you should be going after niche keywords related to your small business. These niche keywords typically cost less money and are hyper-focused on the audience you’re going after.

The keyword “used cars” is entirely more competitive and expensive to bid on than “pink 2001 Pontiac Firebird”. So be as specific as possible when adding keywords to campaigns to get the most for your dollar.

Don’t Forget Negatives

Just as important as keywords is negative keywords! This is a non-negotiable, must have on each an every campaign.

Adding negative keywords tells Google or Microsoft what search terms don’t align with our campaign goals. Without negatives, you’re at risk of paying for unwanted, low quality clicks to your website- especially if you’re utilizing broad match keywords.

So tidy up those campaigns and don’t spend your hard earned dollars on search terms like “used craiglist accent chair” when you were aiming for “new accent chair” clicks.

Engaging Ad Copy

Creating high quality ad copy is a key component in a successful SEM campaign. Make sure your ads check off each of these must have’s:

  • Relevant to the search and contains keywords
  • Headline uses a highly targeted keyword
  • Create a sense of urgency  (ex. 1 week only)
  • Address customer pain points and provide a solution (ex. in stock)
  • Highlight your value proposition (ex. free delivery)

No matter how much budget you have invested into your campaigns, Google and Bing will still take into account the ad content when determining what ad to display to their users.

Bonus: Ad Extensions

Ad extensions won’t make or break your SEM campaigns, but can they sure can increase your click through rate!

Extensions are a dynamic part of your SEM ads and are swapped out base don a users intent. Must haves for any campaign include:

  • Location extensions- these link to your Google Business Profile
  • Call extensions- help users get in direct contact with you
  • Callouts- highlight noticeable services to set you apart from the competition
  • Sitelinks- takes a user directly to a specific part of the websites

Other extensions include images and promotions to name a few, but these are more specific to the individual needs of the business.

 

There is so much to analyze within SEM, but these must know’s are a great first step into setting up your campaigns for success. Try them out or drop a note about your favorite “must know” SEM tip!

 

 

 

References:

D&Apos;Angelo, M. (2021, November 12). Google Ads Secrets: What Works for Small Business. Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7139-adwords-small-business.html

Google. (n.d.-a). 9 tips for Google Ads budget management. Google Ads. https://ads.google.com/intl/en_id/home/resources/stretching-your-google-ads-budget/

Google. (n.d.-b). Google Ads Best Practices – Google Ads Help. Google Ads Help. https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6154846?hl=en

Kumar, B. (2020, April 21). 11 PPC (Google Ads) Management Strategies For Small Business. Media Challengers. https://www.mediachallengers.com/11-ppc-google-ads-management-strategies-for-small-business/