The paid search offering has many people torn over whether paid clicks are as valuable as free traffic. As the Paid Search department head at WebiMax, I see every day that when used properly, as with all marketing mediums, it is a great tool and can have a drastic impact for a business. From a common perspective, one can easily say that “I just glance over the ads,” but if you saw a text or display ad published that had an offer that you just couldn't refuse (sorry for being cliché) or an ad that reminded you of something that you were looking into last week and were just pulled away from researching the first time, tell me that you would not be engaged at all.

In the example above, I was simply referencing ads potentially positioned by keyword or remarketing targets, but that only scratches the surface of what you can do with paid search. This is an offering that has resulted in consistent spending growth. In fact, the latest Convario report shows an 18% growth from 2011 to 2012.

With 90% of the overall ad spend last year, Google remains the largest player in the paid search space, with Bing/Yahoo! coming in second. eMarketer also reported in Q3 2012 that the major search engines paid search revenue will account for nearly two-thirds of all digital ad spending, which is estimated just over $37 billion for 2012.

If you are not currently promoting your business through a paid search plan, you may be missing out on some valuable opportunities. With over 12 years of existence, paid search has come a long way, and there are options to fit all marketing budgets. If you would like to discuss some options from strategy, consulting or a full management plan, just let us know and we will be happy to help.

Already have a paid search marketing plan?
That's great!

Keeping up with all of the enhancements and opportunities to grow your business and increase brand awareness from paid search may be difficult. This not only applies if you are the owner or president of a SMB, but also if you are working within a marketing department of a larger corporation. If this sounds very familiar to you, I can assure you that you are not alone.

Some critical areas that are sometimes overlooked, but may have a drastic positive impact on your paid search planning/accounts are:
• Remarketing/retargeting
• Ad Extensions
• Tablet Optimizations
• Mobile Optimizations
• PLAs and CSEs (for e-commerce sites)
• App ads
• Video ads

In addition to the focuses listed above, I cannot stress the importance of proper metric tracking from the start of any marketing initiative. With digital mediums, tracking can be pin-pointed more accurately than traditional media. If you do not have your tracking set up properly, you may be missing a piece of the puzzle when accessing and optimizing your plan. Whether you are currently working with an agency or handle your marketing in-house, I am sure that you have the basics in place regarding tracking, specific targeting, account structure, enticing ads and great user-experience landing pages. If this is not the case, or you would like to learn more about our team of paid search managers, don't hesitate to contact me.