In a world where the results you can achieve with organic digital marketing are starting to fade, having a highly effective paid media strategy is crucial for IT consultants. Paid media puts you front and center as far as Google search, social media feeds, and more. There are many different types of paid media, including AdWords, Taboola, digital banners, and more. But without an effective strategy, all of these are worthless.
Without an effective strategy, you won’t able to reach the right audience and are essentially throwing money out the window. Making your paid media for IT consultants’ strategy more effective can vary based on what platform you use. However, as far as overall strategy is concerned, there are several steps you can take to increase paid media’s effectiveness for your company.
Test Out Different Channels
Depending on your goals, you’ll want to choose different channels. If you’re looking for more brand awareness, typically a paid social campaign is a good place to go. But if you’re searching for lead generation and a better conversion rate on your website, Google AdWords may give you the best bang for your buck. No matter which channel you decide to start with, it doesn’t hurt to test out different options.
If your paid media for IT consultants’ campaign isn’t effective on LinkedIn, test out AdWords and see if that makes more sense for your goals.
Optimize Your Keyword List… Constantly
Your keyword list is quite possibly the most crucial part of an AdWords campaign. In order to get the highest ROI out of your campaign, optimize your list constantly. Look for new keywords with the right ratio of competition to search volume to allow you to have the most visibility at the lowest cost. Keep an eye on your analytics to see if you’re receiving junk traffic and what negative keywords would keep your ads from appearing for the wrong searches.
Try Out Different Ads
If one of your ads doesn’t perform well, don’t write off the entire channel as ineffective. To truly understand how well a channel will work for you, create at least three or four advertisements per campaign. This will allow you to evaluate their effectiveness and pause the bad ones or increase the budget on the better performing ads. Paid media for IT consultants isn’t just point and shoot. Some advertisements will perform better than others based on ad quality, IT industry trends, and copy/design.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
The best way to discover which channels, ads, or audience targeting settings will perform the best in your paid media campaign for IT consultants is to experiment. However, don’t just try out different tactics without keeping accurate records. Follow the scientific method. Develop a hypothesis, create an experiment, and record the results. This will allow you to truly narrow down what’s working in your paid media strategy and what you need to change. You may be surprised at the results. Maybe you’re more competitive for those keywords than you thought or text ads really do work well for your business on LinkedIn.
React to Your Data
Data is there to help you. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to running paid media for IT consultants is failing to react to the data. Advertising analytics should be checked on at least a weekly basis. This allows you to notice any red flags and prevent them from becoming issues. You can also optimize your ads on a faster, more frequent time frame. For example, if you notice that one of your long-time successful keywords for your AdWords list has become more competitive and more expensive, you can quickly move to find an alternative. Without watching the data, you would waste more of your money on expensive bids for a low return.
Evaluate Your Ad in Terms of Your Persona
Every industry is different. Every business is unique. Very few businesses have the same persona. What worked for an IT consultant for local businesses may not work for an IT consultant who works for Fortune 500 corporations. Be sure to evaluate your paid media IT consultants’ campaigns in terms of your personas. Would they be searching for that keyword? Can you find 50-year-old males who work in large corporations on Facebook? Without a clear picture of your persona, your paid media campaign is unlikely to be effective.
Tell a Story
People are tired of the sponsored advertisement appearing on their Facebook feed with the stock image and the company logo and the so-many characters of text. In order to create a more effective campaign and truly engage with your audience, it’s important to tell a story from a refreshing perspective. Speak to your persona’s pain points, answer their challenges, and make an advertisement that is all about the customer.
Customize Your Landing Pages
An ad that takes people who click to a generic landing page is much less likely to convert. Customize your landing pages per paid media campaign. This allows you to create custom copy that speaks to why your visitor clicked in the first place. Is your landing page delivering on the promise you made in that advertisement? If not, it’s time to make a change. Note, that you shouldn’t be making custom landing pages per advertisement. With three ads per campaign, that’s far too many landing pages.
At the end of the day, the best way to make your paid media for IT consultants campaign more effective is to work with an expert. When you work with New North, not only do you have access to a decade of paid media experience, but you also work with a dedicated team who has the time and energy to focus on your paid media campaign. It takes time to set up, optimize, and evaluate paid media campaigns. Do you have enough hours in the day?
For more information on New North can help you, check out our paid media services page.
