| With search marketing now accounting for 40% of online advertising spend in the UK; marketers cannot have failed to notice the continued rise of this marketing medium. So how can you optimise your sponsored search campaigns and maximise your search marketing spend? First of all, it is imperative to set your campaign goals and objectives. Are you looking to sell something online, capture customer data or provide information for an offline sale? If seasonal demand affects your business, think about the times of year when people are most likely to be searching for your business and adapt your budgets and search terms accordingly.
Choose a variety of relevant search terms and remember that some of the highest conversion rates come from the less popular - but more specific - terms. It’s also a good idea to group search terms together that reflect either your company or the likely conversation rate of the user. To get the most from your campaign, relevancy is key. Your search term, title and description and website need to be directly relevant to each other. If you rent cars in Birmingham, you clearly won’t get listed for supplying garden gnomes in Islington! When it comes to writing title and descriptions, it is best to write bespoke titles and descriptions for each search term. The main point to remember is not to be too 'salesy'. Be honest and factual in your descriptions, as this is what attracts consumers. Don’t use superlatives – saying you’re the best doesn’t provide the most relevant information for the user. If you really are the best, back it up with relevant evidence on your site. Where possible, include the search term in either your title and description (ideally in both) –our research shows that including the search term in your titles and descriptions gives you a 50% higher click-through rate. Landing site optimisation is a crucial factor in converting clicks to sales – send users as deep into your site as you can by giving a direct URL to the relevant content (deeplinking). Once a potential customer clicks through to your site, the process to their search 'destination' should be as clear and straightforward for them as possible. We all know how frustrating it is to click on a search result that appears to be just what you're looking for - only to be taken to a completely irrelevant page. Not only will deeplinking give you a faster processing time, it will also offer a higher quality user experience. And finally – track, track and track! To fully optimise your campaign, tracking really is vital. Ensure you know which terms, title and descriptions are working the best for you, so you can allocate your budgets more effectively and optimise clicks to conversions. This article was written by Karen Salamon of Overture www.overturecampaign.co.uk | 
