While automated sms continues to be one of the most effective inbound marketing strategies, a text messaging service for business continues to be a specialized segment of the marketing sector — effective, but difficult without the assistance of a firm with experience.
On the other hand, pay per click, or PPC, campaigns on social media and search engines like Google continue to provide quick and powerful results for companies — provided they are executed properly.
The following are seven questions you should ask yourself before starting a PPC campaign, in order to ensure that you get the most out of your marketing dollars:
1. What is the goal of my PPC campaign?
Before investing a single dollar into a PPC campaign, it is absolutely imperative that you identify what your immediate goals are right out of the gate. These goals will vary from business to business. However, in general you should decide whether you are trying to establish brand recognition (and loyalty), or create sales and other conversions right away.
2. What keywords and demographics am I targeting?
Next, you need to decide which keywords are best suited for your brand. Using a tool like SEMRush can help you identify where there are keyword opportunities. You should also be thinking about your target audience — which can vary among your various PPC campaigns.
3. Can I combine PPC with an organic SEO component?
In general, PPC campaigns are designed for quick results, while SEO campaigns require a longer timeline for more cost-effective results. If you can combine PPC with SEO, you can leverage the benefits of each on top of each other. An example of this would be an SEO blog that you use to generate sales leads, and a PPC campaign that drives traffic to that blog.
4. What does success look like long-term?
The next thing you should ask yourself (and your team) is what long-term success looks like. Typically you’ll have short-term goals for your PPC campaign, but there should be an overarching goal that the PPC investment will help bring your company towards one or more years from now. Having this in mind will help you make more informed and cost-effective decisions about your campaign.
5. Should I focus on search or social PPC first?
Ultimately, you might decide that you want to invest in PPC on both social and search platforms. However, in the early going, it’s more cost-effective to choose the one where you think you can have the greatest impact and work from there. You can always add the other one later.
6. Should I compete for competitor branded terms?
You might find that your competitors have much higher brand recognition than you. If that’s the case, you can consider using their branded terms as part of your PPC keyword campaign. This can help draw some of their audience to you — however, make sure you aren’t breaking any copyright/etc. laws in the process.
7. How can I improve my PPC campaign?
Finally, it’s important to remember that there are always things you can do to improve your campaign’s effectiveness. You should constantly be A/B testing your campaign in order to get the greatest return on your investment.
Find more PPC insights here.
Ken Rhie is the CEO of Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and brings 30 years of software, internet, and mobile communications background.
