New online advertising options are introduced every day, each offering the opportunity to promote your business to potential customers. As one of the original online advertising options available, paid search ads provide a quick way for shoppers to find product information.

‍How do you know your potential customers are researching online?

‍The ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ concept, originally introduced by Google in 2011, demonstrates the fundamental reasons your business needs to have an online presence. This ‘Moment of Truth’ is the awareness stage when consumers first research a product. They typically research products, services, and businesses online prior to ever talking with a salesperson, making this research their first interaction with your business. Paid search ads allow you to keep your business at the top of the search engine results so that they find you first!

‍How does paid search work?

‍Paid search campaigns use a keyword bidding process to increase your chances of showing up in the sponsored listings on Google.  This top listing increases your visibility to consumers throughout their buying process. Including location or purchase intent key terms such as ‘near me’ or location can help generate more targeted leads that are further down the purchase funnel. At PowerChord, our Google-certified digital marketing team brings their local expertise when creating effective co-branded digital marketing campaigns. Learn more here about the basics of developing a Paid Search campaign to ensure that your ads are working hard to drive traffic to your business.

‍Keyword Research: When first developing a campaign, we want to make sure we find the right keywords for your product and industry. Our team strategically works with you to ensure we are winning bids for ‘local’ keywords, especially ‘near me’ or location searches. These keywords usually target consumers later in their purchase journey with related searches with local and purchase intent. When determining keywords for bids, we use the following factors:

• Quality is better than quantity
• Long-tail keywords (phrases) are typically cheaper and convert higher than more general, short-tail keywords
• Relevant keywords that match your website’s content or ad perform better

Hyper-Local Targeting:We use geo-targeting for Paid Search campaigns to target local consumers around your business. This allows you to be found quickly and easily by the right consumers. Although our recommended default radius for targeting is 25 miles, we can adjust to optimize the campaign for your region.

‍Optimization: Throughout the campaign, our team looks to optimize by the time of day, geography, search network, and budget to get the most for your paid search spend. Depending on your goals and KPIs, we can alter our keyword bidding strategy or try a different combination of keywords to be effective. Paid Search is a crucial digital marketing channel for your business to generate more qualified leads. Consumers are actively searching for your business and rarely scroll past the first page of results. Since organic SEO takes valuable time for your website to rank, use paid techniques to get results faster - providing visibility for your business to the right consumer at the right time.