Paid Ads Considerations for Small Businesses
What do you do when you want your audience to see you faster? The answer, paid ads because these strategies can put your business in front of users instantly. Unlike SEO, which takes time, a well crafted ad campaigns can drive targeted traffic to your site right away, helping you attract customers actively searching for your products or services.
For local businesses, Google Ads is an incredibly powerful way to reach people nearby. Whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar store, location based service, or an online eCommerce site, paid search ads ensure you appear when potential customers are ready to buy. And this leads to getting more traffic, more calls, more leads, and more sales.
CAN SMALL BUSINESSES COMPETE AGAINST BIG COMPETITION
Yes, of course you can, and our agency helps small businesses with limited budgets compete against bigger competition, and budgets all the time. We accomplish this by focusing on smart strategies, primarily consisting of very targeted campaigns. I know you’re not like your bigger competitors, and you can’t simply spray a bunch of test shots hoping one hits your target.
Small businesses like yours can maximize ad budgets by targeting specific keywords, refining ICPs, and using geo-targeting to reach local customers. Long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive can also help drive high-intent traffic at a lower cost. Additionally, setting bid limits, optimizing ad copy for relevance, and using the negative keyword list (for search queries where you don’t want an ad to serve) can improve your paid ads performance without overspending. With a well-structured paid media strategy, businesses with small budgets can generate quality leads and a strong return on ad spend (ROAS). Today, I’m gonna walk you through some highlights of our process.
DEFINE YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER
If you’ve read other articles on our site, you’ve probably seen ICP often when talking about target audience. Simply, an ICP is your “Ideal customer profile” or the audience who best fit the criteria for your products and/or services. I’ve worked with a wide range of small businesses, and believe it or not, when asked to define their ICP, I hear a lot of “Well… Everyone.” Sorry to break it to you, no business is everything to everyone. This is why defining your target audience is a crucial step before engaging in paid advertising campaigns, or any marketing effort. When you understand your ICP, only then can you create ads that resonate with them. How do you define your ICP? I’m glad you asked, start with:
- Geographic location: Start here if you’re a local business, or have a targeted service area.
- Retail Location: Plenty of consumer behavior studies exists that examines the relationship between how far someone is willing to drive (or invest into a trip) versus the uniqueness or quality of the product or service they’re looking to buy. General rule of thumb, if the perceived value of the product or service is higher, then a customer is willing to travel further. For most run of the mill consumer products, the majority of people limit their travel time to about 15 minutes.
- Service Location: We also have clients that like to work in certain geographic locations of their metro area. Some of this is because of the proximity to their warehouse/office, and some of it is because certain areas don’t fit their ICP very well. Example: If you’re an electrician that’s on the very south end of the metro, and you don’t like to sit in traffic for 2 hours to get to the north end of the metro, then don’t target those cities by adding them to your negative keyword list.
- Other things to consider:
- Is there a primary gender? If you run a business only for women, you might not want to waste your budget on targeting men.
- Is there an age range? If you build luxury, custom-crafted homes – do you think your primary age range are going to be those under 25? Perhaps it’s going to be the age range that includes those who are well into their careers, already have owned a home or two; etc.
- Income range? Building off the above example, do you think those in lower income brackets will be in your ICP? Unless they have really rich parents that like to give them money, probably not.
- Must do exercise:
- Create customer personas. For whatever reason, business owners don’t like doing this. However, this exercise allows you to understand who is your ICP, and who might be adjacent to it. Having all of this information allows you to craft a custom strategy for your ads that matches their needs, wants. Remember, search engines are basically tools people use when they have a problem and are looking for a solution.
- What does your data say:
- Google Analytics is a free tool you should be utilizing to collect data on your site. This can help you gain valuable insights about your audience. Analyze reports to see who is visiting your website, which pages they engage with, and how long they stay. These insights allow you to fine-tune your ads for better targeting and improved performance.
TARGET THE LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS
The classic definition of a long-tail keyword is one that contains three or more words in the search phrase, and commonly has lower search volume, and higher search intent. An example of this “best used cars for new drivers under $10,000.” However, my definition strays a little outside of lines a little because I don’t care if it’s 2 words, or 10 – if it’s low competition with high intent, then it can be valuable in your strategy. Just know it’s rare to find two-word terms that have high search specificity, and the majority of the time those are more broad. These lower volume, high search intent keywords can help your business attract targeted traffic with your Google Ads campaigns. Moreover, not only are these keywords less competitive, but usually cost less to bid on too.
USE TARGETED LANDING PAGES
An optimized landing page is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of your paid search campaigns. When users click on your ad, they have an expectation of finding exactly what they were looking for. If they can’t, and have to hunt for it, then you’re surely diminishing your conversion rate. Even worse, a lot of users aren’t even willing to search for it, and instead they think, “I clicked on your ad, and you can’t even get me directly to the product?!” This is why having targeted landing pages that align with search intent isn’t optional, and it’s a requirement if you want to maximize every dollar spent on ads.
Beyond that, another benefit of a targeted landing page is it improves your Google Ads Quality Score. Yes, they rewards ads that provide a seamless experience between the search query, ad copy, and landing page. A higher Quality Score can lead to better ad placements and lower cost-per-click, making your campaign more cost-effective.
HOW TO OPTIMIZE LANDING PAGES
Here are some helpful hints in optimizing your landing page:
- The page can exist just for the purpose of paid ads. You don’t have to use an existing page, and the purpose of the landing page could be solely for paid ads. But it can be an existing page too, such as: product pages, or some other conversion page like a lead, or download.
- Match the headline to the ad copy. Reinforce the page is exactly what the user is looking for by using the same keywords and messaging from your ad.
- Provide a clear and compelling call to action (CTA). Make it easy for users to take the next step with a prominent, action-driven button, and a statement that tells them what you want them to do.
- Use engaging, conversion-focused design. Minimalistic is always en vogue for a reason. Keep the page layout clean, mobile-friendly, and visually appealing.
- Speed Matters. Ensure your page loads quickly to reduce bounce rates and keep users engaged.
- Keep the Focus on One Goal. Much like your business, every page can’t be everything to everyone either. Avoid distractions by eliminating unnecessary links or clutter that could pull users away from converting.
REMARKETING STRATEGIES
In my opinion, remarketing campaigns are a great digital advertising strategy, why? Well, by definition this method targets users who have previously visited your website, or interacted with your brand somewhere, but they did not convert. Now there could be a lot of reasons why they didn’t convert, and recognizing the differences is crucial to success. Before deciding if remarketing is right for you, determine why users aren’t converting because there might be a disconnect that remarketing won’t fix, and that can cause spending on ads to be a money pit.
RED FLAGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
- If users are unclear about what you’re providing – or simply: they don’t get it
- If users lack interest in your offering – or simply: they don’t want it
- If users don’t see value in your price – or simply: they don’t need it enough to pay what you’re asking them to
If it’s scenario one, rethink how you’re presenting information to your audience. People tend to want a clear explanation without the fluff. For example, when explaining your job it might sound more intriguing to say “You’re a corporate downsizing consultant that right sizes business operations.” However, instead you could say “I help businesses who are overstaffed plan layoffs.” The latter is much clearer for your audience to understand, plus it’s also easier for search engine bots, and LLMs to understand too. However, your product might be something new and innovative too, which requires more education for users to understand what problem they have that it solves. If it’s scenario 2, or 3 – then you’ll want to go back to the ICP step, and keep evaluating who your target audience really is, and what your data actually says.
OTHER REASONS USERS DON’T CONVERT
Now that you got the tough part out of the way, here are some other reasons why users don’t convert. And these reasons make them prime candidates for remarketing campaigns:
- Still Researching: Users tend to go through stages of the purchase funnel. These are awareness; consideration; and conversion, so maybe they’re still at the top or middle of the funnel. Before the digital era, it was commonly said users need around 7 touch points before making a purchase. In the digital era, I’ve read studies that have said users need as many as 15. Why? Probably because we’re bombarded by ads everywhere that we’ve become desensitized.
- Still Comparing Options: This is very common, especially if your product or service is higher priced. Think about being in the market for a new house versus buying some bubble gum. When buying a new house, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in that middle funnel stage. However, when buying some gum, you probably get through that funnel quickly while in the checkout lane.
- Got Distracted: This is incredibly common. I can’t even tell you how many times I saw something on social, and told myself that I check into it later. However, later never came because I was distracted by needing to get ready for evening plans, or because I started cooking, ate dinner, then forgot.
There are many more examples, and I can probably ramble off at least a dozen more. But, as long as you’re sure you’ve got the ICP right, then retargetting users is a cost effective way to drive conversions. Google and social Ads are definitely the most popular platforms marketers use for this strategy because you can show tailored ads to these past visitors as they browse other websites, watch YouTube videos, or scroll through social media. Also, another way you can retarget your audience is with your email marketing strategies – this can be past customers, abandoned cart, newsletter signups, etc. Remarketing helps keep your brand top of mind, encourages return visits, and increases conversions by re-engaging potential customers with personalized offers, reminders, or incentives.
HAVE A HOLISTIC STRATEGY
Much like your business, your marketing strategies don’t exist in a vacuum. What I mean by that is paid results aren’t the only factor influencing performance. There are plenty of free ways to appear on the first page of Google, and this includes creating valuable content, optimizing your Google Business Profile, appearing in directories that have page 1 results, and more. When your brand shows up in multiple spots on the SERP, it builds credibility and increases the likelihood of someone clicking on your paid ad, or getting to your brand one way or another. SEO & paid ads tend to go hand-in-hand because of Google. By mastering SEO fundamentals, and securing organic results alongside your ads, you can maximize visibility and increase your chances of attracting clicks. Additionally, your other marketing channels can drive search demand too. This could be content published to your website or social channels, an email newsletter, podcast, etc. All those touch-points can create demand for users to search your brand, and your products.
Regardless of how much you study paid ads strategies, it’s still going to take some trial and error because each industry has nuanced differences. But the good new is, what works 80% of the time is fairly universal, and it’s the other 20% that can be nuanced. If you have questions about google ads or paid media, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Do you want to master SEM, then pair paid search with SEO: