There are many factors that play into getting a high rank, or beating your competition. These factors include, but aren’t limited to, good keywords, the ad copy, and how much you’re willing to pay for the ad. So, money does matter, but is it the whole thing?
Keywords
Having a good keyword for your ad to come up is important. When looking for the right keyword so your add shows up, you should think as if you were the customer – what is the customer looking for? John Gagnon discusses an important aspect of finding the keyword in something he calls the three minute drill. This discusses that when coming up with the key words, one should write down the most important products or services the company is offering. This will help guide the customer to their ad page where they find what they’re looking for without scrolling down (Gagnon).
So can you beat your competition by spending the most money on search ads?
As previously stated, there are many factors that play into beating your competition for search ads. Ideally, the more you spend will help you beat your competition, but it isn’t the only relying source. Paying more has to do with the conversion rate. The cost per click can be found by multiplying the CPA (or margin) by the conversion rat; therefore, the higher the conversion rate, the more money you will spend on ads. How much money you have as a company to begin with also plays a roll. For example, as John discussed, Auto insurance spends more on ads than Jimmy Choo. However, people are more likely to shop online for Auto Insurance, than they are Jimmy Choo shoes considering they’re so expensive. Since Auto insurance takes more advantage of online usage, it makes sense for them to spend more on ads, because that is how they get their customers. Since Jimmy Choo doesn’t play as big of a role in online shopping, they don’t have to spend as much on ads as auto insurance.
In conclusion
Paying the most money on search ads isn’t enough to beat the competitor, it helps significantly, but it isn’t everything. Some companies may not need as much as an online ad presence than others. Some companies may have a strong keyword usage, or a big company like Amazon or Walmart may take a higher rank than a smaller business. That also comes into play with how much money the companies have, Amazon could spend more on ads because they have that money, rather than a hole in the wall store that doesn’t make money like Amazon.
Core Concepts of Paid Search Marketing – John Gagnon