Data-Driven Marketing: Digital 101

We’re often asked to take our digital marketing know-how and break it down for businesses just entering this digital advertising arena.  Here’s one such piece we’ve shared with clients that takes a look at both the architecture of paid-search campaigns and shares a bit more information regarding search results types…enjoy.

Importance of Campaign Architecture

A solid and well thought-out campaign architecture is the core of a good paid-search campaign. You may have heard the saying “You can’t build a house without a solid foundation.” The same rule applies to paid search campaigns.  The relationship between the keywords in your campaign and the ad copy is extremely important.  One of the key qualifiers for whether or not a paid search ad will appear for a search query is relevancy, thus making it important to ensure the keywords and ad copy within each individual ad group complement each other.

The digital space’s flexible and dynamic nature allow for it to be an excellent testing environment.  Because of these traits, the addition of new keywords and ad copy is an ongoing process.  If a campaign is structured to allow scalability, the continuous testing process is made to be much more efficient.

Search Result Types

Paid Placement Listings (also referred to as sponsored listings) are the only listings within the search engine results page that are paid for.  Paid placements appear in response to related search queries. Ads are determined to be relevant to a query based on a proprietary algorithm used by search engines. This algorithm is comprised of several different variables that are all ultimately related to the user’s overall experience.   The more relevant the copy is in the query, the quicker the consumer receives the information they’re looking for, thus improving the overall user experience.

Organic (or natural) results are non-paid listings that the search engines deem relevant to the search query completed.  Results triggered are also based on proprietary algorithms surrounding the overall user experience.  The more relevant and useful a website is, the better the chance it has to appear on pages related to search queries that will ultimately benefit the objectives of the website.  Websites should also follow best practices for development that ensure the search engines can easily ‘read’ the content on the website, allowing it to be indexed and categorized properly.

Local Business Listings are pulled in from business directories that are also not paid placements. Again, these are based on the relevancy of the query as determined by a search algorithm.  Many of the larger local directories pull information from each other and the unavoidable “refresh” of new data from inaccurate feeds may cause a phone number or an address to be incorrect at times. The directories know this is a problem and while there has been some improvement, the issue does still exist at times. The National Digital Strategy will continue to include the regular updates of verified data feeds to help reduce these instances.