We get it. The pay-per-click world is an ever-changing one. Once you’re caught up, it’s easy to get comfortable and coast, confident that you’re in the clear for a while longer. But even if you’re  relying on strategies as recent as 2018, you’re due an update. Trust us, those comfortable, old ways can do more harm than good: it’s time to say goodbye to the old, evergreen paid-search strategies and begin to implement a strategy that’s a little more 2021. 

 

Don’t Bid on Position

Bidding on position isn’t the best move now that Google has deprecated the average position metric, so the original position is no longer capable. There are different alternatives but we’ll focus on what we most recommend: When it comes to Google, try a target impression share strategy. Be sure to focus on absolute top of page or top of page. The downside? You may find there is less value in battling for first or second position—that’s because the CPC end game is to cut down on ultimate efficiency. Tread carefully. 

 

Bid on Brand Keywords

If you’re assuming that you can stop bidding on brand keywords because brand is covered by SEO, you’re wrong (sorry!). Leave that kind of confidence to the big brands and make sure you’re giving yours more frequent TLC. To keep competitors at bay, you’ll need to make your presence known, diverting traffic from the other guys. You have to bid on your brand keywords again, and make sure you can scale the value of it by having a bid strategy in place. Being present also means you have the opportunity to customize the consumer path as well as your messaging. 

 

Don’t Focus on Max ROI

It sounds great in theory but when you scale the target, things can go wrong, like losing focus on your total return. Scaling up ROI/ROAs can narrow your audience, which decreases your audience. Alternatively, try (when working with Google) max conversion value, which chases the revenue for you (but could also lower the number of sales). Or try max conversions to target CPA, which, while it doesn’t account for ROI or value, it does work like max clicks. 

 

Try a Max Click Bid Strategy

An old strategy you may have used with Google is target impression share, meaning that you’d rather be seen than to consider that in doing so you sacrifice potential web traffic, not to mention  efficiency. Bidding to be visible is no longer a winner’s game. In theory, top of page visibility is in theory attainable, but there’s a cost. Is it worth it to spend too-much money? Only if you have a disposable budget and only if you can offset the effects of trickled-down inefficiency. There are more efficient ways to do the branding while still using keywords. Why not go for a max click bid strategy, careful to use a high CPC that enables it to get aggressive (but not limiting) with rank. Also, be sure not to go more than a week without a CPC cap or you’ll sacrifice the efficiency of the rule. 

What extinct strategy can you update today? Contact us to discuss a paid search game plan that will help grow your business!