If you’re a startup, your goal is to get your name out there and create buzz around your product or service so that you can start generating sales. The most cost-effective way to raise brand awareness is through search engine optimization (SEO), but the process involves time—time you may not have when your immediate goal is to bring in traffic. SEO is effective, that’s for sure, but if you’re pressed for time, you may want to resort to paid search advertising or a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign to have visitors start trickling in.
Unfortunately, paid search ads can be quite expensive for a startup with a shoestring budget. Even so, that doesn’t mean that there’s no workaround. There are tips and tricks you can do to make paid search work even with limited resources. To produce initial organic traffic to your site with paid search, here are some tips you can follow:
Determine your budget
The first thing you should do is figure out how much you’re willing to spend on a paid search campaign. Doing so will help you align your goals with the determined budget later on. To guide your calculations, decide on the number of leads you’d like to gain through PPC. You should then set a clear definition as to what counts as a qualified lead so that you can start calculating for the cost-per-action (CPA).
Be strategic with your keyword research
Bigger brands with a massive pool of resources can target whatever keywords they want to secure top ad placement, but startups would need to be smarter with their keywords due to a tighter budget. The trick is to choose the right keywords that will yield the best results. It may take some time to figure it out, but high volume, high intent, and low competition keywords are the perfect keywords that can connect you with your target audience.
Do your best to find a keyword that signals a high intent to purchase but with lower competition. If you’re selling training shoes to people who want to learn tennis, you can do away with the keyword “training shoes” and target similar ones like “tennis trainers” or “tennis sneakers.” These keywords typically have higher intent due to their specificity.
Use smaller ad groups
You may also want to target smaller ad groups for tighter, more hyperfocused campaigns. Instead of trying to experiment with keywords that you think your ideal customer might search for, create different groups of keywords that are relevant to each other to ensure that you end up with a campaign that is relevant to the things your target audience is searching for. Tighter ad groups and their corresponding relevance may result in Google ranking your page higher or increasing your impression share even if your bid isn’t as high as your competitors’.
Refine your marketing strategy
You don’t have to spend your entire budget on paid search. Once you’ve run a PPC campaign and already know the keywords that work best for your startup, you can use the same keywords to shape your SEO efforts. You can even use them on email marketing, social media, and other digital marketing initiatives.
Paid search ads are usually tough on the pocket, but it’s possible to employ a campaign even with a limited budget. If you need help setting up your first PPC campaign for your startup, get in touch with us. We provide paid ads services that can help boost your digital marketing and grow your business to the next level. Contact us today to see how we can help!
