Search Marketing 101: Budgeting

Welcome to the fourth installment of Search Marketing 101 (if you have missed the previous installments please visit Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3). Today we will go over budgeting for your SEM campaigns.

Budgeting is right behind testing and analyzing in terms of importance when it comes to paid search campaigns. Make sure you set daily budgets to prevent a certain campaign from spending too much. You will lose impressions by setting a low daily budget but you will not run into any invoice surprises. These can often discourage or even outright kill a small businesses desire to stay in the space. Start out slow, and work your way up as you get your feet wet. Depending on your industry clicks can range anywhere from a few cents to as high as $10 plus dollars. A daily budget should range according to your average cost-per-click.

Other ways to limit daily spend are Day Parting, or having your ads show only during select times of the day. We talked about Geo-Targeting, which can save you money by being targeted, and always turn off Content Networks. Unless you are solely trying to brand your product or service, turn off the content networks! Most campaigns when created will have content turned on as a default. Make sure it is turned off. Content networks are expanded areas of reach that the search engines are able to show your ads. They are shown on blogs, emails, web pages, etc. and are supposed to be shown when there is related content to your keywords on the page. The main difference between search and content ads is, a user is looking for your product/service when clicking a search ad. They are more qualified because they are looking for you. When using a content ad it is like you are searching for them.

Check back tomorrow for the fifth installment of Search Marketing 101.