Automation Is The Key To Taking Your Search Marketing From Good To Great
Search is not like any other medium and search marketing is a demand-driven connection point in which individual conversations are engaged at scale. It forms an exceptionally complex system of interrelated tasks which makes the channel interesting for search marketing enthusiasts.
A good search marketing strategy is a finely tuned machine linking someone’s intent to a perfect response. A search marketing strategy that uses automation to continuously advance and become more proficient and efficient with time can be called a great search marketing strategy.
But there has been a slow implementation of automation by search marketers. Some have been burned by flaunted branded bidding algorithms, some are pleased with disappointingly generated ad text, while some are deceived by assurances of real-time automation that distort data processing lag times. In addition to this, there’s still persistent dislike between various search marketers regarding how every new tool is likely to snatch extra manual control. Many will find themselves agreeing with these issues.
Search marketing automation is now reevaluated notwithstanding previous challenges. Advertisers are not only missing out on incremental performance when they shun the usage of automated tools for search marketing, but they’re also working with an outdated attitude that is no longer sustainable, considering the latest market and consumer disruption.
Nowadays usage of improved tools has allowed more control, clarity, and actual business performance than it was ever possible. Real-time automation is the basis of the total network of search. Automation changed search from an analog model to an active digital medium, enabling it to develop further than a small catalog of curated sites to an active, cross-device experience that can provide nearly every kind of content a user wants.
Complex But Not Complicated
Search marketing is complex, not complicated. The difficulty increases rapidly whenever a new element is added, as every intent signal needs to be considered in combination with all others. Search engines combine hundreds of data points for every interaction to perform the most tailored and appropriate experience in both paid and organic results. Automation is fundamental in joining those signals.
Failures Or Misunderstandings?
Present automation tools won’t operate in a scenario, but digital marketers having proper know-how will not reject a tool just because of a sole disaster. Rather, they’ll examine what happened and understand whether the tool or a mistake of how it works is responsible for the disappointment. This type of error is known as PEBCAK in IT troubleshooting vernacular.
A tool’s name and repurposed terminology can also confuse. Powerful functionalities can get mixed up in a variety of acronyms. A search marketing campaign is a constant structural element, not the type of flighted buy characteristic of traditional advertising. The incorrect use of the tool by marketers can also cause poor results. For example, upon combining automated and manual management, numerous bidding and budgeting tools don’t respond well.
Making a change in a campaign’s daily budget can result in pausing all automated bidding for seven days while the system rebuilt a new baseline. Daily processes can be reworked to unlock the tool’s benefits. The best method is to know the strengths and weaknesses of a tool, and align it with pertinent use cases or save it for upcoming opportunities.
Test, Learn And Implement
It can be tempting to feel all of this complexity can be managed manually. Regarding search marketing, automation allows marketers to scale their messages and strategies throughout a huge audience while at the same time providing tailored results and optimized performance. Whoever has been burned by automated tools previously needs to reconsider the latest solutions and figure out the correct combination that will take your campaigns to the next level.
Deepak Wadhwani has over 20 years experience in software/wireless technologies. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Intuit, ESRI, Qualcomm, Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone, Nortel, Microsoft and Oracle in over 60 countries. Deepak has worked on Internet marketing projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange Country, Denver, Nashville, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco and Huntsville. Deepak has been a founder of technology Startups for one of the first Cityguides, yellow pages online and web based enterprise solutions. He is an internet marketing and technology expert & co-founder for a San Diego Internet marketing company.
