They’re Searching For Answers

ClickEquations Blog

A Serious Look at Paid Search Marketing Strategies, Tactics & Tools

By ClickEquations | January 1, 2010

Every time someone executes a search, they’re asking a question.

They search because they want to learn about something. Or find out where something is. Or discover who has it or knows about it.

They may just be curious. Or the question may have been provoked by an urgent problem. The question could be simple or complex and the searcher might be sophisticated or naive.

But every search is a question.

Search engines deliver answers. They look at the word or words in the search box, assume or infer the question being asked, and then put together a list of potential answers to that question.

Paid search is your chance to offer your answer as a part of that list.

This simple truth – people are asking questions and you’re trying to answer them - is a great way to frame the process of managing paid search accounts.

It makes clear the fact that every step you take along the way should help to either target better questions, deliver better answers, or ensure that you pay a reasonable price for the privilege.

There are many complicated aspects of managing paid search. Accounts are large and business conditions change rapidly. There are confusing options, evolving algorithms, and aggressive competitors. This isn’t going to be easy.

But it’s nice to have a simple mental model to guide us: We’re just trying to answer questions.

http://www.bryaneisenberg.com Bryan Eisenberg

This is a great metaphor. I think where people make the biggest mistake though is understanding the intent of the question people are asking.

For example, I had a friend advertising for his supplements under a generic vitamin type (think vitamin C, etc.). He was advertising the benefits of the vitamin as opposed to advertising the benefit of his brand of vitamin. People searching for the vitamin type most likely understand the benefits of the vitamin, but not of his brand. As soon as he switch the ad his click-throughs went from 0.25% to over 4%.

If you go through the process of understanding your different customer types or personas you can get a better sense of the questions they are asking.
http://clickequations.com Craig Danuloff

Thanks Bryan – Yes making sure you understand the question – interpret, infer, and/or further quality after the click is vital. Everything you've been saying for years. The amazing thing is how often advertisers treat vastly different questions to a completely undifferentiated answer. Once we can get on the path to correcting that, we can hopefully go far – all the way to personas and beyond.
http://www.ajsquare.com/products/article/index.php joelchrist

Great info. That our posting should be the right answers to that questions.
Deven_Shah

And then analytics help in understanding how well the question was answered.

One way to look at the web pages is that every page is a potential entry point to the web site. And every page should focus on one question to answered, or one single thread of idea to be developed.

I have tried to use home page as landing page for PPC. And it wasn't as effective as to when I had landing page that is talking specifically about the keywords that I targeted in PPC campaign.
http://www.seo-semantic-xhtml.com/ PSD to HTML

Thanks for sharing such a great article. Yes, you are absolutely right. If you are paying to answer than you must be very careful while answering those queries.nnSubscribed and bookmarked
jenniferdlugozima

Simple and effective strategy. Instead of thinking in keywords, we should think in the language of searchers: “What are they looking for”; ” What will convince them to buy”, and “How will they ask the question?”
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