Tips on Optimizing your Online Advertising Budget

According to a recent IDC report of high tech companies, approximately 5% of the total marketing budget is allocated to search ads, such as Google Adwords and separately, another 7% to display and banner ads. If Google Ads or other online advertising is part of your integrated marketing mix, follow these tips to get the most out of your ad budget.

The 4 W's

Remember the 4 W’s your elementary school teacher drilled into your brain: Who? What? Where? When? & How? Your answers here will help you find opportunities to get more out of your budget.

Who? - Who’s coming to your website?

Know how your customer speaks and present ads that resonate with them. Always have at least 2 ads running to A/B test and learn what's working best. Modify lower performing ads to increase your click through rate (CTR) over time. 

What? - What are customers looking for?

Know your key words; focus on those words that are known to convert well for you. Lower your placement and budget for words with a lower CTR. 

Where? - Where is your traffic coming from?

Target ad campaigns by state. Shift budget to focus your ad dollars on states that represent industry clusters or concentration of prospects you've served successfully & profitably.

When? - When are customers active?

Use Google Analytics to study your site stats and determine when your web traffic is at its lowest points; turn off ads in dead of night; weekends; whenever indicated. For high tech B2B companies, we're typically well-served to turn off Friday night through Sunday noon. 

How? - How have your changes affected your site traffic?

Remember to track your Adword results! Measure impact to web traffic. Start to log incoming requests if you don't already. Use Google Analytics and AdWords to track the effectiveness of your ad campaign(s). 

What tips do you have?

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