Every year search advertising becomes more and more competitive, especially search advertising in the Raleigh NC market. As a business owner or someone marketing on behalf of a business you may be wondering if getting into the search advertising game is already impossible, but lucky for you, with proper guidance, you can join the game at any time and still succeed. In this blog I am going to let you into 4 secrets that every successful search advertising manager knows that can ensure campaign success despite your level of competition.

Keyword Match Types

Just last month, I was preaching on finding your perfect match when it came to Google ads and here I am again, once again reiterating that keyword match type can make or break your advertising campaign.

As mentioned in that article last month, there are now three types of keyword match types that you can use in the Google Ads platform, phrase match, exact match, and broad match.

Phrase Match:

Phrase match is when the targeted keyword matches the phrase or words contained in the keyword, but additional items can be in the search. A good example of this is the phrase match keyword “buy vinyl records” will also match the search “buy vinyl records near me” or “buy vinyl records in stores”.

Exact Match:

Exact match is when the targeted keyword matches the search one hundred percent. This means if you target “where can I buy vinyl records,” your ad is only going to show for that targeted keyword, no variations. Exact match is likely one of the most restrictive forms of keyword match types but can also be one of the most effective when executed properly.

Broad Match:

Broad match is exactly what it sounds like. With broad match, Google can match your targeted keyword for similar terms and searches. Sticking with our vinyl record example, the broad match keyword “buy vinyl records” could match to “purchase vinyl records,” “buy vinyl for records,” or even “vinyl records for collectors near me.” Using only broad match can be detrimental to your campaign if you are not careful.

In most cases, the majority of your search advertising Raleigh NC budget should be spent on phrase and exact match keywords.

Conversion Tracking is Vital

This one is a step that so so so so many advertiser’s skip and due to some website configurations, you may be limited to. Setting up accurate conversion tracking for search advertising is essential to creating successful campaigns. You must create conversions that not only mean something in Google Ads but are direct measurements of success in your business. Google ads will use these conversions to drive the AI behind the scenes and if you are listing phone calls as a conversion that is what Google’s AI will optimize towards phone calls and if those are not conversion goals for your business then you are wasting your money on Google Ads.

Review Search Terms Often

Did you know that Google will show you what searches your ads are coming up for? If not then you are already missing one HUGE piece of the pie when it comes to properly optimizing your campaign. We recommend monitoring your Google ad search terms weekly, if not daily, adding in negative keywords, and refining your targeted keywords to ensure that you are bidding on terms that will result in conversions.

Understanding Bid Types

There are multiple bid types in the Google Ads platform and selecting the right one for your management style and your business is key. You can set each keyword bid manually, or you can allow Google to automate your bidding based on their machine learning algorithms. We recommend utilizing manual bidding at least for the first few months until enough data is gathered that Google’s AI is able to accurately optimize the campaign. Manual bidding is not a set it and forget it style of bidding though so do note that with manual bidding you will see better results upon launch but you will also spend a lot more time doing so than letting Google’s automation do it right out of the gate.

LET’S GET IT STARTED

Whether you are new to search advertising Raleigh NC or are a pro, you might be worried about the changing landscape (no really, it changes weekly). It’s no secret that Google is moving towards automation every day. With this, more of your account and budget is in Google’s hands and you will have less control over how your campaign is optimized so understanding it before Google moves to complete automation is critical.

Each year the online marketing world gets more competitive, but with these tips, we hope you are able to launch or improve your search advertising Raleigh NC campaigns.

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