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Searching for marketing resolutions?

Daniel Jupp gives his top ten resolutions for search engine marketing in 2007

Daniel Jupp gives his top ten resolutions for search engine marketing in 2007.

Resolution 1: Campaign maintenance
Pay per click campaigns are like local libraries. Use them or lose them. It does takes discipline and planning to keep a campaign relevant, but revising keywords and writing eye-catching new adverts at regular intervals are good habits to get into. Simple tasks which get overlooked throughout the year, either through complacency or lack of time, dilute the overall effectiveness of the campaign. If your ads point to broken links or products lines which are no longer stocked, your positions on the search networks will rapidly become downwardly mobile.

Resolution 2: Organisation is key
This is a really an extension of resolution number one. Keeping a campaign organised means it runs more efficiently so you'll need to be on the ball and group relevant keywords into their own ad groups. Don't have hordes of general terms in one group, be ruthless and split them into smaller offerings. By doing this, adverts will be more relevant to the user, earning easy brownie points from the search engines. A higher quality score equals a lower cost per click.

Resolution 3: Creative copyrighting
If you Google your competitors, you're sure to come across a slew of almost identical adverts. Stepping away from the crowd takes imagination but can bear rich rewards. Don't stick with tried and tested formulas to woo your client base, be imaginative with language and your adverts will immediately become more eye-catching. It'll also show your company as a market leader, able to differentiate itself from the competition.

Try thinking of your favourite newspaper headlines. Were they witty? Or hard hitting? Funny or short and sweet? Use the advert rotation features to test more creative offerings while still showing established adverts.

Resolution 4: Get mobile
Did you know that as of April 2006 there are an estimated 66 million mobile users in Great Britain (Yankee Group, Dec 2005)? Connecting users to your business with a Google AdWords mobile ad is a matter of minutes. You don't even need to have a mobile web site to run a mobile PPC advert, instead you can connect the browser directly to the business phone number.

Resolution 5: Take 1
Pay per click has developed enormously in the last twelve months and mobile advertising is just one of the new faces of the PPC phenomenon. Google has trail-blazed a path to technical superiority with the advent of pay per view video advertising. Of course, you need to create a video advert before you can introduce it to your search marketing campaign but this can be as simple or as complicated as you desire. Video advert production is going to be one of the industry buzzwords in 2007 so get in early and start planning your directorial debut now.

Resolution 6: Break new ground
They say a change of scenery does you the world of good so break out of your comfort zone and try pay per click on a new search engine. MSN launched its adCenter platform in September 2006 and is already winning over big name clients.

Yahoo has long since been a challenger to Google and offers a host of affiliate sites, increasing PPC ad visibility. You can import keywords from existing campaigns on other search engines to compare and contrast performance and cost per click.

Resolution 7: Become a convert
Implement conversion tracking to measure the profitability and usefulness of your campaign. With Google AdWords, you can class a conversion as a click, filling in an online form or a purchase. Whatever you class as a conversion on your PPC investment, tracking software can help you create more targeted and better thought out campaigns. It shows you exactly what works and what doesn't, removing the need for guesswork.

Resolution 8: Targeting
You can target your pay per click campaigns in a number of ways. Make it your resolution to learn at least two concrete methods of reaching your target search users. Basic targeting is done at the ad group level and involves carefully selecting only the most relevant keywords and adverts that accurately describe your products and services.

More sophisticated targeting involves using AdWords advanced features such as language targeting, regional and country targeting or time zone settings. If you can only deliver within a certain radius of your business address, implement the relevant city targeting so clicks are not wasted on users outside of your business reach. If you are a business to business supplier, learn how to set time scheduling to turn your advert on during business hours and off at all other times. This means it is only visible during the hours your potential clients are likely to be searching the net.

For MSN advertisers, advanced demographic targeting features could inject your pay per click campaign with a new lease of life. Elect to show your ads to particular age groups or target by gender.

Resolution 9: Deal or no deal?
Strict editorial policies on the search portals carefully protect the integrity of the virtual goldmine of online shoppers from false claims by pay per click advertisers. While your advert should accurately reflect the nature of your business, it's also worth considering special offers and gestures of seasonal goodwill. Holiday sales, early summer discounts and buy one get one free offers are a nice touch if mixed in with everyday great deals and quality products.

Resolution 10: Understand that bigger isn't always better
There are a couple of things that people always lie about, age is one and size is the other. Luckily bigger isn't always better in pay per click terms. Don't be put off from taking your marketing online just because you don't have vast reserves of cash to throw at a pay per click campaign. Results on a small budget are possible - they might require more creative thinking and pre-planning but a respectable search position and flurry of hot leads are not unrealistic goals if the campaign is well thought out and a disciplined approach to keywords employed.

About the author
Daniel Jupp is director of the pay per click agency Top Position.