Are You Getting Inside Your Prospect’s Head?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing is a fascinating subject. No really, it is. You have to properly understand the process that is taking place inside the mind of the searcher to really appreciate this. Searchers are becoming more sophisticated on a daily basis. It used to be that they would simply enter a relatively close search term and see what came up. this was borne out of the expectation that the searcher would then have to trawl through the results to properly locate a suitable answer to their question.
Did you notice that? I implied that the searcher had a question. Even when searching was relatively basic, the searcher always had their own conversation taking place inside their heads. And the quest for an answer to their silent conversation starts with their search (i.e. a question). Are you considering this when you construct your campaigns?
Inside the mind of the Searcher
The most effective campaigns are those that are attempting to answer the specific question that the searcher is asking. But what are they saying? The answer can be found in the search box. What they type into that little search box, directly relates to how far down the research road they have come.
Consider these two search terms: “Yukka Plant” and “Yukka Plants”. On the face of it, these two searches would appear to be identical. Yet the intention of the searcher is likely to be very different. Someone typing in “Yukka Plant” is more likely that not looking for information about what a yukka plant is. Maybe they want to see what one looks like, where it comes from, or even that such an oddly named plant really exists!
Switch now to the term “Yukka Plants” and just by adding the plural to the term the searcher would appear to already know what one is. They know it exists, they probably know what it looks like, and so they are looking for something different. If you were looking to buy one, which would you type in?
Search Trends
Research into search behaviour is now showing that the user has developed a more sophisticated nature. Now, when they type in a phrase, their expectation is that the question inside their heads will be answered. It is becoming more and more standard to see a complete phrased question typed into the search box. This is fantastic news! If you have the power to get under the skin of exactly what the searcher is looking for, and you match your offer to answer their question precisely, your click-through rate will go through the roof. They will literally be unable to restrain from clicking your ad. And why not? They have asked a question, and your perfectly-matched advert answers it unequivocally.
Why should you bother?
Google has made changes over the past few months where the price you pay for your click, and the position your ad attains, is directly related to how relevant your ad is to any given search term. This is something you are probably familiar with, known as the Quality Score. The effect of all this however, and what the killer PPC professionals are already doing, is that you need to write specific ads matched directly to a particular search term. The tighter you make this, the higher your quality score, the greater number of clicks you will get, and the less you will pay for each click. Oh, and as a byproduct, obviously you are going to get the highest possible targeted traffic. I’ll take those odds any day!