Common Paid Search Mistake: Confusing Traffic With Leads |
From the not-exactly-breaking-news files: managing a paid search
campaign is not easy - especially for business owners trying to do it
themselves (we know you are out there). There are a number of reasons why it's better to hire a paid search expert.
In the next few Free SEO Articles and Resources we'll discuss some of the most common mistakes we see when we meet with business owners. Hopefully this will prove helpful.
Here's the most common mistake - confusing traffic with leads. The gist: just because a keyword is very popular, doesn't mean it's valuable to your business.
Here's a real world example - we manage FileLater's paid search campaigns on Yahoo and Google. Their service targets people looking to file a tax extension. In fact, the word "tax extension" is the most valued keyword in their industry. That's because it turns out that people that search for "tax extension" are likely to file one.
Compared to "tax extension", the amount of searches conducted each for "taxes" is insanely higher - more than 3x in April alone and in the tens of millions per year. Don't let yourself be blinded by the big numbers, however.
Think about it, when someone types "taxes" into Google they could be looking for a whole host of things besides what we want them to be looking for (tax extensions) such as: info about getting their taxes done, someone to do their taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, laws and rules about taxes, dates to pay taxes...the list is virtually endless. This is an example of a keyword that is too broad. Sure, "taxes" is a much more popular search term that could move the traffic needle, but that doesn't mean it will deliver a better number of qualified leads to FileLater than a more targeted keyword, like "tax extension".
Another downside to broad keywords is that they are usually very expensive due to competition. Back to the "taxes" example. Think about all of the companies and organizations that could possibly buy that keyword. The more companies buying that keyword, the higher the price is being driven up. The higher the price per click, the higher the cost per acquisition. The higher the acquistion cost, the lower the margin. No need to say more...you are a business owner!
With almost every new client that we're lucky enough to work with, we see this issue. Companies have needlessly wasted huge dollars on broad keywords, making their entire paid search campaign either a failure or a barely thriving endeavor. And that's very frustrating.
After a few months when our clients see their cost-per-acquisition plummet, they are more than willing to give up on making traffic the most important metric and are ready to concentrate on keywords that produce qualified leads. So, resist the high-traffic keywords and go for the ones that will get you business!
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