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5 ways to integrate pay-per-click search ads with online display ads

What kind of online advertising should you use: search or display? Well, if you want to drive targeted traffic to your site, build brand awareness and increase sales, you should be using both.

When you tie search ads, display ads and your landing pages together with a consistent message, the mixture can help your advertising resonate with users and drive site traffic and sales to a whole new level.

Here are five tips that you can use to integrate your Sponsored Search ads with display ads:

1. Know your target audience.
This one comes first, because knowing your target audience is the key to any form of Internet marketing. Before a penny is spent on advertising, you must ask yourself: Who do I want to target? What are their needs? Which words should I use in my ad copy to get them to click on my ad?

2. Determine the goals of Sponsored Search and banner ads.
The goals of both types of ads should ultimately be the same: attracting qualified traffic to your site. But the way each accomplishes this may differ. Generally speaking, pay-per-click ads are primarily used for generating leads and sales, and secondarily for increasing brand recognition. The majority of the time, banner ads lean toward branding and to support other search marketing strategies.

3. Write the search ads first and then expand.
When launching Sponsored Search ads and display ads at the same time, it’s generally easier to write the ad copy for the search ads first, and then use that theme to expand the banner campaign. Why? Because you’re working with a finite amount of space in the search ads. Once the search ad copy has been written, your graphic designer will have a better idea how to craft your banner ads.

4. Target your ads for the same places.
It can be very effective to get search ads and display ads displayed in the same general area of a site. For instance, if you operate a travel company in San Francisco and want to target tourists, you might launch a Sponsored Search campaign with Yahoo! Search Marketing, submit your website to Yahoo! Travel Submit, and purchase a banner ad in the Yahoo! Travel San Francisco-related section. This way, visitors can find your ads via search, read reviews in Yahoo! Travel, and see your banner ad on the same page, such as on this page.

5. Test, then test again.
With all online advertising campaigns, you should plot out your campaign at the beginning and test different ads and ad copy, offers or landing pages to achieve the highest return on your advertising investment. Be creative and don’t be afraid to try different things. Some ads that you think will be very effective might tank, while other ads you think will be worthless might take off!

– Nick Stamoulis, President of Brick Marketing and Blogger at Search Engine Optimization Journal and Pay Per Click Journal

Bullseye! photo courtesy of mfshadow via Flickr