Tightening belts and campaigns in an uncertain economy
Oct 28, 2008 Economics, Landing Pages, PPC Basics, Webmaster Tips
If there ever was a reason to tighten your budgets and increase campaign conversion, this worsening economic climate is forcing many to reconsider the “eyeballs over all” marketing objective. It used to be that many companies threw caution to the wind (and many still do) just to drive traffic, not for any particular goal, “just cuz”. While that may work for some, e-commerce and retail sites are feeling the pinch, but search users are hunting for bargains out there - do you have what it takes?
Get Creative
Break out your generic single and double keyword campaigns and adgroups, targeting the creme of the crop for long-tail search terms that tend to yield higher conversion rates and get creative. New creative including imagery, rich content, better calls to action, and increased attention to detail can squeeze precious incremental gains in conversion necessary to fuel growth in tough times.
Hunker Down
If keywords suddenly take a turn for the worse, don’t be afraid to pause them to keep your quality score from plummeting. The best course of action is to mix tougher to win keywords with easier to win longer tail combinations, thereby keeping average ad quality across a portfolio of targeted ads higher than they would be in solitary campaigns or groups. Often times lowering the bids on harder to win keywords will enable you to focus efforts and spending on high-quality revenue streams. Slow and steady wins this race.
Remember the Four P’s
Keep in mind that you have to satisfy each of the four P’s: Product, Place, Promotion, Price. Products have to be value-packed for a slowing economy, and that often means cramming a lot of features into a smaller price tag. In addition, you’ll find that localized ads with highly targeted geosegmentation will help you both in quality score calculations and overall conversion. Combine value-add either through services or promotion, be local, and fulfill the need for frugality.
Be Wary of the Bigger Picture
Our current economic slow-down is an inevitable turn created in part due to a wide variety of consumer confidence issues, market turbulence, political instability and market course-correction. People will still want and need for products and services, but are likely to be more cautious when spending. This economy tends to reward the calculated risk-takers, small businesses and innovators. The future is bright. Modern instability can and often does shift quickly into the black.
Tags: economy, landing page optimization, local search, pay-per-click
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