Here at M3, we think it’s important to show the personality behind the brand, so we’ve devised our ‘Meet the experts’ series – allowing you to get to know each member of our family a little better. This month we spoke to our Paid Acquisition Manager Joe Dingley.
Joe heads up our paid acquisition team and is an expert on all things paid including social media, Google, Amazon and other shopping channels. We sat down with Joe to go through some of the most frequently asked questions we’re asked about paid acquisition.
What is Paid Search?
Paid search is the process of selecting and bidding on keywords and search terms you would like to appear for on search engines such as Google or Bing in the ads section. This works by placing a bid. The ad platform algorithmically determines ad rank and bid amount based on your proposed auction price. The business is only charged when a user clicks on the ad and it’s our job as an agency to monitor spending, optimise keywords that are performing and deliver the best impact for the business.
What is Paid Social?
Paid Social is the process of creating audiences and engaging ads on a variety of Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. Most platforms are intuitively similar in the fact you can usually select from 3 types of audiences. The first is a core audience based on interest, titles and demographics. The second audience type is custom which usually entails creating audiences from the social platform’s pixels. The third audience type is based on first party data to create LAL (look-a-like) audiences in which the platform will find similar people to your uploaded list.
What is the difference between them?
Unlike Paid Search, Paid Social works with audiences rather than keywords. Paid Social typically has a wider reach but Paid Search is mostly intent driven.
What should people know about Paid Search and Paid Social before they begin?
There are a few key elements to driving success in paid channels:
1. Objective setting
Before anything, it’s important to set objectives and realistic expectations on how activity is going to perform. As an agency, we always try and forecast activity across different stages on the funnel using historical data or industry benchmarks, so our clients are not over-ambitious with results. Of course, we always strive to over deliver but we need to understand these channels are not going to transform your business overnight.
2. Right place, right time
Choosing the right keyword or audience or a combination of both is our next step to deliver success in your activity. Creating personas or using keyword research tools is something we recommend to start with allowing you to set great foundations.
3. Write and create awesome ads
Get creative with your ads on social and PPC. This will impact your costs by increasing how the platforms grade the quality of your advertising efforts.
In a nutshell, how can they help your business?
As with any marketing activity, a business is looking for something to move them forward and we all know revenue for vanity and profit for sanity. Digital Marketing is highly trackable so reporting on results and aligning those with your business objectives is going to drive the biggest impact.
Interested in learning about how M3 can help your business grow with paid acquisition? Call 0333 321 1493 or contact us today.
