Paid Search can, without a doubt, play a critical part in your business growth. Paid and organic search also capture demand generated by other media channels and are critical channels at the point of purchase.
Understanding and owning as much relevant SERP(Search Engine Results Page) Real Estate not only enhances your visibility, but it also increases the propensity for the consumer to engage with your brand; wherever they are on their journey, whenever they like, and however they want to interact.
It is therefore no surprise that (traditional) Search Ad Spending will reach a staggering $256.5 billion (WARC) this year, accounting for 28.3% of all global ad spend (WARC). Again, it is also not surprising that Google Ads remains the dominant force here, taking the lion’s share at $176.4 billion (68.8%) (WARC). Search plays a crucial role for many advertisers, but the market complexity and challenges are leading to missed opportunities and waste.
Let us dive into the 5 key challenges that advertisers must overcome to run effective and efficient paid search campaigns.
Google Ads is changing rapidly, increasing complexity
Advertisers are faced with rapid and continuous evolutions of the Google Ads platform. Where in 2010 the number of platform changes were just a few hundred, we are currently seeing thousands of changes per year – if not 10’s of thousands.
Google Ads is as complex as ever, advances quickly and is increasingly fueled by AI and Machine Learning. New features are continuously launched (or removed), and to keep up, marketers are faced with a constant and steep learning curve.
However, by adapting to these evolutions, marketers can harness Google Ads’ full potential and maximise performance value. With the platform constantly evolving, it is critical to ensure your Google Ads accounts are well managed – helping you to seize opportunities and drive business results.
There is more competition than ever
Competition is intensifying due to the rise and continuous growth of digital. Simply put, the Paid Search ecosystem is crowded, making it harder and harder to gain visibility on Google and attract your audience’s attention. The value that paid search brings is well known. Now more than ever, it is crucial for advertisers to have a deep understanding of their audiences and create a tailored strategy to reach their consumers. Even though the market is crowded, a perfectly tailored strategy will allow you to compete effectively.
Search price inflation puts a pressure on sales
Fueled by the rise in competition and not adapting to the new Google, search is seeing growing price inflation. A recent study by WordStream uncovered that 91% of industries saw an increase in Cost per Lead (CPL), with an average YoY increase of 19%; the worst hit industry sits at a +134% YoY CPL change.
This creates a challenge for marketers to manage advertising spend, whilst keeping up with growth targets. In order to do more with less, you have to ensure your account structure and optimizations follow best practices. Factors like match type strategy, budget distribution, ad copy testing, search term – ad – landing page relevance, and many more all highly impact the value you gain from your paid search investments.
Decreased ad relevancy
Google Ads’ ongoing evolution and constantly changing consumer behaviours increases the challenge of delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right audience. Maintaining ad relevancy is no easy feat. This highlights the essential need for advertisers to practice ongoing account optimization, and apply advanced targeting, to ensure your ads remain relevant and create an impact.
Random ads
Random ads happen when your ads are misaligned with the user’s intent or interests – a highly inefficient phenomenon. With search targeting tools becoming less precise, consumer intent growing more difficult to interpret, and AI driving more ad choices, the ad the user sees is increasingly unrelated to their search. To avoid wasting your budgets on those that are uninterested, you have to ensure a robust ad strategy, keyword selection and audience targeting.
Scrutinize and optimise your investments
Navigating Google Ads and the market’s challenges is more complicated than ever. Where should you spend your marketing budget? Performance Max? Shopping? Paid search? Outside of search to raise awareness and generate demand?
The complexities, as well as the opportunities, underscore the necessity for marketers to regularly scrutinize and optimise their investments. To make the most of your Paid Search budgets, you have to take control, stay up to date with the evolutions and take these challenges head on.
And yet, we often see Search is not reviewed as much, or as deep, as we see for other channels. However, the billions of dollars invested in the channel warrant a structured, diligent and ongoing review to maximise investment value. Stay proactive, and you will reap the results.
At Ebiquity, we provide our clients with a deep dive into their Paid Search performance to ensure best practice administration and account set-up. With-in just a few weeks, we help them ensure solid foundations are in place so that their paid search is built for success; and provide consecutive analysis to track progress and drive ongoing value.
On average, our reviews find between 10%-40% improvement opportunity for best practice, helping our clients maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of Paid Search investment.
Are you looking to take action now and optimise your paid search investments?
