One of the beauties of paid search to Internet marketers has always been its ability to provide concrete ROI data. Compared to other online marketing efforts, like SEO for example, paid search advertising offered a clear view of click to buy, making it obvious what worked and what didn't. Today, search and ROI are undergoing something of a transformation. Their evolving relationship is being impacted by a growing focus on brand building through paid search.
Branding through Search?
Yes, it's true. More and more companies are essentially launching the modern-day equivalent of image advertising via paid search. Why? Simply because more and more people are spending time online resulting in it being the number one medium via which brands can be built.
Recent research conducted by Microsoft about Bing advertising returned results that supported businesses' use of PPC for brand building. Driving customer engagement or brand awareness and perception was noted to be either extremely or very important by 60% of respondents. In contrast, driving in-store sales was noted to be of comparable importance by only 48% of respondents.
Redefining Conversions
This evolving relationship between search and ROI is essentially redefining what marketers view as conversions. Gone are the days when a conversion automatically meant a sale. Certainly that is one type of conversion but it is by no means the only metric in that category any longer.
Virtually any customer engagement can be viewed as a conversion. Examples include:
· Making an appointment online
· Viewing an interactive portion of a website, such as a menu or schedule
· Completing an online form
· Creating an account or signing up for a loyalty program
In the world of social media, the view of conversions can be even larger. A new Like, share, retweet and plenty more can all be captured as conversions.
What Does this Mean for Businesses?
Businesses must understand and accept the brand-building prowess of online advertising-and harness it wisely. This means that their ads must be created with capturing the right conversion metrics. No longer is it sufficient to track only sales from PPC ads, for example. Conversion tracking codes can give more detailed insight into the broader world of conversions and, therefore, true ROI.
Don't Ignore Social Media
Social media may well have been one of the drivers behind this shift to using online paid ads for building brands. Let's face it-social media does not generally drive sales so much as it reinforces brand identities and creates loyalty.
Even Facebook's redefined ad options call out the ultimate goals as conversions, such as obtaining new Likes. The concept of paying to promote your brand is, in a way, simply expanding beyond social media to the Internet as a whole.
The Bigger Bottom Line
It is true that at the end of the day, profits matter. But it is equally true that strong brands drive sales. Improving brand strength, awareness and preference via paid search advertising is, therefore, one step in the process toward driving sales and it is a step that must be-and can be-measured. By adopting a more holistic view of SEO and ROI, businesses can harness the power of their brands in dramatic new ways.
