Paid Advertising. Optimizing your organize search rankings is likely at the heart of your campaigns. Although paid advertising has long been used to increase customers and enhance brand visibility, it can also be a great way to maximize your non-paid search efforts.
Taking a perspective that looks beyond the surface benefits of advertising gives you insight into how you might use it to enhance your entire marketing campaign.
Advertising is the first step in developing long-term relationships. The more quickly you understand this, the better the results of your advertising will be.
Marketing Problems
Businesses have different ways in which they use paid advertisement. For many, seeing a lack of branded search or low click-through rates might dictate how much and where they spend on advertising.
If your competition has higher levels of engagement and rankings, then you might consider paid advertising as the solution.
In fact, even though paying someone directly for links to your site is frowned upon, paid advertising is supported by the search engines and other entities. It only needs to be disclosed that you are advertising with another site.
What many SEOs are seeing is a direct relationship between paid advertising and organic search results, but not for the reasons they think.
The Relationship Model
Strong link profiles come from strong relationships with highly ranked sites that have authority. If you consider an advertisement as the first step in making that connection, then you are on your way to reaping the rewards of this approach.
You can build relationships with bloggers, media, and thought leaders who are most likely to influence a large number of people. Through advertising, they become familiar with your service or product and are more likely to talk about it outside of your advertising.
This approach could also lead to business partnerships and guest blog posts. Both are significant ways to grow your audience in a short amount of time.
Social media sharing can also grow out of these relationships. If they are familiar with your product, and believe in its value, they are likely to share it on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other channels.
Putting Paid Into Practice
The best way to approach paid advertising for increased organic search is to reach out to those influences directly. Rather than using advertisements with Google or Facebook, first connect with the bloggers and sites that are most vital to your industry.
This direct approach will be more effective in the long run because you’re establishing relationships. Backlinks to your site will come over time. But taking a broader approach that emphasizes the relationship over the promotion yields the best results for your business.
These influencers will mention you to their audience repeatedly over time. In many ways, the relationships you’re building aren’t immediately apparent. So thinking “long-term” will help you have the right perspective.
If you’re advertising is creative and useful to the right audience, you’ll get better engagement.
Remember that offline media such as print and radio are equally effective avenues for this method of paid advertising. Search volume is greatly enhanced using these mediums. So try to think outside of the Internet box.
You can use paid advertising to gain visibility for your brand. But it can also set the stage for valuable relationships that will pay off over time. Consider how your business can take this approach to increase your audience more efficiently.
If paid advertising has led to strong relationships for your business, let us know in the comments.
