With paid bids reaching $54 in some industries this week (http://searchengineland.com/study-insurance-loan-related-keywords-are-googles-cash-cows-86113), it is becoming increasingly difficult for new or small businesses to commit to paid search.
So when is the right time to consider paid search? how should you go about it? which keywords should you target?
Here are some answers to help you make the right decision:
What are your objectives?
As for everything else in a business, you need to have clear objectives when considering paid search. These can be conversion objectives, specific revenue targets, number of subscribers.
Working towards those will help you focus your activities and judge return on investment, a crucial element of paid search.
Organic search vs paid search
Ideally you will a apply a mix of both organic and paid search as these two disciplines work hand in hand and support each other. A search started organically may end up converting on a paid keyword and vice versa.
The best advice here if you're just starting your business is to get all the basics of onsite and offsite seo right, and while doing so start your paid campaign to generate some traffic. After a few months, your organic traffic will pick up allowing you to modify the paid/organic balance based on results.
Budgets & keywords
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, some paid keywords are now reaching $54 per click, but don't let this frighten you. If you don't have big budgets, there are ways to run some campaigns at an affordable rate. To limit budgets, bid on your brand terms. These will be your cheapest keywords, but as your brand gets known, they should end up giving you decent traffic and hopefully conversions.
Generic keywords are always more expensive, so try and identify long tail keywords that your users will search for. These may not generate a lot of searches or traffic but should give good ROI.
Use your analytics
Using your web analytics data should give you a very good insight into your users behaviour. Analyse keyword reports and conversions to refine your paid campaigns and give them more focus. Google Analytics is constantly evolving and will provide you with more than enough information to control your campaigns and budgets.
So in short, the ideal time to start using paid search is as early as possible after your business is created. While not compulsory, it should be integrated into your online marketing strategy as it is still a very cost effective channel despite recent increases in costs.
I hope this answers some questions or worries you may have as a business, but as usual feel free to share your views and opinions.
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