In our business school of management, we use all sorts all tools that will help us in our business careers. I love simulations since in most of those I do really well. In our Digital Marketing class, our professor gave us a new simulation tool called Stukent. This tool allows us to safely and cheaply learn how to do SEM professionally. It is still new and it is evolving every single day, but I still love some of the features in that tool that can be applied to real Search Engine Marketing.
1. Use A/B Test in your SEM. It’s simple. For example, in WordPress, you can use plugins that let you do it. I use Nelio that is very user-friendly and allows you to test your ideas with your Audience. It is also free, which is really convenient. It will allow you to increase your CTR (Click-through rate) and your Conversion Rate fairly easy. It is especially vital for e-commerce sites, where every person matters. In Stukent Simulation, people that knew their audiences preference dominated. In real life, this knowledge might generate thousands of dollars.
2. High Margin is the key. Not that many people are not afraid of data, but it’s fairly simple. To improve your ROI (Return Of Investment), you need to make sure you’re bidding on the cheapest keywords that provide you with the maximum of impressions. Be as specific as you can be with your target audience. If you’re selling umbrella, find specific keywords that are used by people buying umbrellas. Then test it out. If it generates money – keep it. If it’s not – drop it. Always test keywords. Write your results in your database or an excel file. If a word generates 200% of profit, it’s good. If it generates 2000% of profit it is amazing. Those percentages will change every month, and those numbers depend on the industry, but you will never know what is effective and what is not unless you’ll try it. In real life, there are tools that will help you research keywords. For example, Ubersuggest.
3. The forecast is complex. It’s really easy to find cheap keywords that have a lot of interest in your target audience. But it’s really hard to understand how to predict potential sales. Use average monthly searches in Google Adwords related to that specific word. Use previous month amount. Use data available to your real store. Use previous year’s data. More importantly, use your common sense and don’t overspend on keyword all of your budgets and then get 0 sales at the end of a month just because people decided not to use that keyword in this month. Don’t routinely forecast. Be mindful.
4. How to make money on SEM. The key to high income is usually the most popular products that your competition. You’re not selling that product, but still want to make money on it? Bid on it. Lead people to your page. And then compare it to your product. And sell your product. It works. Don’t forget to optimize your Landing pages. Use proper tags in the header and meta tags with keywords you used in your ads. Don’t overuse words. Have 3-5 keywords in your landing page maximum.
5. Bid on the most important. Leave everything else to your competition. In the simulation, if you’re spending more than 20-30 cents per keyword than you’re not making money. You’re losing them. In the real world, you need to find that line that you shouldn’t cross. Bidding $20 on a keyword can be a good investment only if it will generate a lot of profit.
6. Use data. Analyze what you can improve. Look at insights of keywords to see what you can do to improve. Are you making all of your profits on a product that you don’t prominently advertise? Are you spending too much on that popular product that doesn’t actually generate profits? Are you showing your most profitable ad to 2000 out of 35,000 people potentially viewing your ad? Does your ad has low CTR, Conversion Rate, or no one is clicking it? Use data to understand what you can improve.
7. Your ads make money. Write your ads very carefully. There are lots of great articles on writing effective ads. Read the article on unbounce that I really like. Don’t forget to add value proposition and call to action to every ad you’re writing. Use keywords in the header.
8. Write unique ads for unique keywords. It takes time, but you will make more money by doing it. Group them together in Ad Groups to help yours with analytics.
9. Be creative. Try new things. Don’t spend too much on that but this is the only way to make money, and win in both simulation and real life.
GrowthHacking 