Seattle Startup Week Recap: Paid Search for Startups

Seattle Startup Week has been a whirlwind of information for newly hatched businesses ready learn and grow. As digital marketers here at Point It, we were able to offer some great tips on how startups can get started in Paid Search. I spoke to a group of entrepreneurs this morning at Seattle Startup Week on paid search for startups. Here is a quick overview of what I talked about and the deck for download.

 

The Situation

Startups have special challenges when it comes to advertising, and addressing some of the effects of that can help avoid surprises.

Startup Disadvantages:

• Starting with an un-optimized account
• Middling quality scores
• No synergy with organic results
• When few people know your brand has a product they want, few people are searching by your brand name

 

Startup Advantages:

• You have a chance to create an account with great quality
• You can surprise the competition

 

Why Use Paid Search?

It gets you in front of your customers, right when they want what you have, without waiting for your brand to take hold.

Why it’s perfect for startups

• You can show potential customers your product page when they search for it, and before you might organically
• You control the message and want your customers to see, and you can test the message quickly
• You can send customers to the exact page on your site you want them to land on, and test THAT quickly with other pages
• Your message can be tailored to your demographic desires

Before you start… Do your research

Set your goals, know how you’ll evaluate your success, establish budgets and timelines, and get on page with your other channels.

How will you know you’re succeeding?

 

KPIs + Tracking = The Power of Knowledge

 

What are Your Resources & Limits?

• Budget
  • How much per month? How much can you spend without seeing results? Will this give you enough for the CPCs you’ve uncovered?
• Efficiency Requirements
  • Do you have CPA or ROI goals for your first and second phases? What’s more important, volume or immediate profitability?
• Timing
  • How much time do you have to prove success in this channel? How do these efforts line up with other channels’ pushes?

Great Practices… Make for Great Results

Be the Expert

• Take exams, read blogs, engage in forums, etc.

Hire the Expert

• Agencies: be clear about your goals and ask about similar experience.
• Individual employees: make sure you feel it’s a good fit. Don’t ask too much from too few

Dominate the Page

• Use extensions that make the most sense
• Highly relevant ads are more likely to show enhanced sitelinks in top positions
• Realize that you pay no more for an ad extension than without one, and may pay less in the long run
• Checkout our webinar on Ad Extensions 

Solve a Problem

Keywords should.

• Align with questions and be relevant to your offering

Ads should

• Provide an answer to the question and promise the solution to a problem

Landing pages should

• Fulfill a promise and provide access to a solution, NOT create more issues.

Early Testing

• Exercise Variety with headlines, value propositions, calls to action, and landing pages

• Aggregation:
  • Use labels to dimensionalize your testing variables
  • 16 ads test as quickly as 2

A Growth Spiral

Build on your successes and leverage what you’ve already won

Keyword Sets

• Reinvest
• Mine Queries
• Cover your bases
• Remarketing: Don’t let them get away, IF you can be their hero

Resources

Google AdWords Certification: https://support.google.com/partners/answer/3154326?hl=en

Industry Blogs:

•  https://www.pointit.com/blog
•  http://adwords.blogspot.com/
• http://searchengineland.com/

Remarketing: https://www.pointit.com/blog/google-adwords-remarketing-tips/

Calculating Statistical Significance: http://www.chadsummerhill.com/ppc-text-ad-test-statistical-validity/

What’s next? Have additional questions about paid search and how to get your new business started?