A brief intro to paid search techniques

Organic search is a beautiful thing. Using SEO techniques can help you rise to the top of the search engines, and ensure your business is always present when a potential customer enters a particular keyword or search phrase. However, it’s not the only way to ensure visibility online – there are other channels you can exploit, too.

In today’s guide, I’m going to go through a few of the different channels that exist under the umbrella term ‘paid search.’ While most of the businesses that use these channels are often product sellers or service companies, some bloggers have found success with paid search, too. Take a look and see if you could benefit from some of these online marketing practices.

PPC

PPC – or pay per click – is one of the most common forms of paid online advertising. You will notice PPC ads when you perform a search on Google – they are the first three results at the top of your page, boxed into a group. Google also lists ads alongside organic results, and you can create your own using Google’s AdWords tool. With a tempting offer, razor sharp copy, and an excellent landing page, you can use AdWords to attract high-quality leads to your site, make more sales, or develop more interest in your website/blog.

Display ads

The subject of display ads is huge. Effectively, they are very much like traditional advertising, in the sense that they will appear on banners or scroll on various websites. You can pay sites directly for advertising space on pages that are relevant to your interests. And, you can use programmatic advertising – such as real time bidding or RTB advertising – to make sure your ads are placed in the right areas. RTB works on the premise that you bid in an auction so you can target your ads to a variety of websites in an efficient, scalable way.  

Native Ads

Native ads are a little less intrusive than PPC or banner ads. They will blend into the other content on a particular web page, and you see them often in news, journalism, and other publishing sites. You will need to sign up to a native ad service such as Taboola or Outbrain, and you should find that once your ads and blog posts get displayed, users will arrive on your site keen to learn more – assuming your content is interesting enough.

Social media

Social media advertising helps your content get seen by more people on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Without paying, it is unlikely your posts will be seen by any more than 1% of your followers, and certainly less than that for people who are unaware you exist. With social media ads, your content can get a highly targeted picture of the kind of guy who will respond positively to your work, so it’s a great way to expand your social network presence.

Inbox ads

Finally, don’t forget about Inbox advertising. These ads appear in people’s email accounts, giving you direct access to their inbox. Given that Gmail serves these ads based on their customer’s search history, again, it’s highly targeted advertising that could draw many new people to your website.

Do you use paid search techniques? Let everyone know about your successes – and failures – in the comments section below!

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