It is important to remember that Paid Search exists as part of the broader marketing mix, and is capable of capitalising on activity driven by other mediums as well as generating uplifts in response to other channels. It is also a highly competitive market place, and so every effort must be made to ensure a holistic approach is taken that stays true to brand values and business goals.
Competitor Strategies: The nature of buying in an auction model means that your results can be affected by your competitors. Not only do you face intense competition from your direct business competitors, but your own resellers, affiliates and organisations that you actually have partnerships with can unwittingly become your competitors in the auction. As such, click prices can easily spiral upwards and marketing efficiencies rapidly decrease. Not having a strategy in place can lead to significant increases in costs, and not managing it effectively can make matters even worse
Integrating Paid Search with Above the line activity: Above the line activity can generate increased interest in certain keywords, or mean that there will be an uplift in response to certain creative messages. Likewise, activity on broader generic keywords can drive more traffic through brand keywords, so all ads used should attempt to create such an uplift. Keyword lists should seek to cover all of the ways that a user who has been exposed to above the line activity may respond.
Managing Natural and Paid Search together: Natural Search and Paid Search must also be co-ordinated; sometimes it may be possible to rely on a high natural ranking to drive traffic from a particular keyword, but in areas of high Paid Search competition you may have to optimise to rank number 1 for both to shut the competition out, ROI permitting of course!
Managing channel integration and competition is not rocket science, but it requires a strategic and thorough approach that clearly lays out the goals and ensures that any interest generated is capitalised upon. This becomes even more important on an international scale when a consolidated strategy can maximise efficiency by decreasing expenditure and ensuring knowledge and success stories are shared between territories.
Whether it be part of an international consultancy project or whether we are taking care of your PPC delivery, Reform’s experience in developing international search strategies, capitalising on above the line activity, and creating approaches to get ahead of the competition means that we are well placed to help your business overcome these problems.