A Conversational Media Marketer Meets Paid Search

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This sells you on your blog AND in the forum as an expert. And in your blog you’re showing that you have valued connections and involvement with your professional community. And your help in forums will – eventually – result in prospects knocking on your door. Oh yeah, and it should give you a nice little bed of links that bring targeted visitors.

So when my community building efforts for one of my clients are fully operational I’m going to figure out a paid search strategy to help boost them, and I’ll come back to this post in SMSblog to remind myself that:

1) As you are starting out, control your spending via your budget controls, not your bids.

It is better to get fewer clicks per $ spent to begin with and establish Quality Score than it is to get more clicks per $ for a few days and then get blown out of the water.

(from AdWords Quality Score – What beginners need to know.)

2) One of the lessons I have learned is to let the market do the research. Sure you have to be smart about initial keyword and ad selection, but you do not have to crack the code before beginning.

So I usually start with one ad group, including several dozen to a couple hundred keywords and phrases, depending on the clients scope and budget. The initial keywords and two or three ads come from the target website, keyword tools, and a little common sense web surfing.

(from AdWords Tips – Start with a Keyword Cooker)

3) CTR is so important when managing AdWords for two reasons. First it is your Hot-Cold meter. Am I on the right track? Am I fishing in likely waters? What keyword/ad creative combinations are resonating with searchers? The second reason CTR is important in AdWords strategy and management is that Google uses CTR as an integral part of their Quality Score.

(from Google AdWords: The Primary Metric vs Lead Indicator)

4) “Draw the tightest line from your prospects exact thought at the time of search, based on their keyword, to your most appropriate landing page.”

(from Google AdWords: Concepts in 25 Words)

Ok, so that’s a good start for me when it comes time to begin my own AdWords campaign for my community building efforts. Big thanks to Tom Hale for creating such a strong, concerted and clear paid search how-to blog.

Tom – any chance you’d be interested in contributing to the SMSblog from time to time?

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