Interested in Paid Advertising? Here’s What You Need to Know First

While paid advertising is one of the most promising marketing methods you can use, it is still important to know how it works before you jump in. While paid advertising allows you to minimize costs and risks, a poorly managed paid advertising campaign can be disastrous. In this article, we’re going to give you a few things you should know before you start your first paid advertising campaign.

Understand the Power of Keywords

Keywords play a central role in virtually any online marketing campaign. Misunderstanding how to use keywords can make or break a campaign.

If you’re launching a pay per click campaign, a tool like Google’s keyword planner tool is great if you’re trying to find great keywords. However, one of the problems with the tool is that it may steer people towards keywords that are too broad. The right way to use keywords is to go for laser targeted,long-tail keywords. Broad keywords will lead you to an unfocused audience and yield unfocused results.

You Need a Solid Strategy to Succeed

Just like any marketing method, you need a clear strategy in place before you get started. While a paid advertising platform makes it easy to reach a certain audience, you still need to have a clear plan in place.

You’ll need to consider when and where you’ll be posting certain ads. You’ll also have to devise different ads so you can do some a/b testing. In addition, you’ll have to budget carefully so you don’t waste money on campaigns that are not yielding any results.

Too many people assume that because paid marketing seems so simple and straightforward, they don’t need any help. It’s always better to work with professionals, at least at the beginning stage, to setup a viable campaign for you. Companies such as digital marketing agency Single Grain are specialists on paid advertising and will help you target the right audience and tweak your adverts to get the best results.

Understand What Sets Organic and Paid Traffic Apart

A lot of people see traffic that comes from SEO as the same as paid traffic, but both are very different. With search engine organic traffic, you get traffic from people who were specifically searching for your product and people who just stumbled on your site as well.

With paid traffic, on the other hand, the traffic is much more focused. And this differs depending on where it comes from. Pay per click is usually at the top of the totem pole, followed by display and video ads. And even not all PPC ads are created equal. PPC ads on Facebook will be less laser targeted than ads on Google, for instance, simply for the fact that people on social media aren’t necessarily in a buying mood when searching for something.

As you can see, while paid advertising is a very straightforward process, there are still a few things you need to be aware of before you start. In all cases, make sure that you are ready to go through a lot of trial and error before you find a winner and don’t hesitate to call for help if you feel you lack the expertise.