The accountant’s guide to paid search

Whilst SEO is the most cost effective way of gaining leads through online marketing tactics, using Google AdWords paid search is an ideal method for those wishing to fast track their way to the top of Google.

For a lot of accountancy firms, obtaining high quality leads through online marketing tactics such as SEO can take time but there are other ways to improve your traffic and Google position. One of the most popular ones is Google AdWords, a paid search tool that uses a sponsored advert to target desired search terms. 

Paid Search Ads (also known as Pay Per Click) are the best way to target people who are searching for a specific thing at any given time. To use Google AdWords you need to set up your AdWords account, select some keywords and place a monetary bid on them to compete for those terms and phrases as people search.

As soon as your campaign has been set up you could be on the first page of Google. However, you shouldn’t expect many results in the first few months of advertising because this will be the time you spend getting to know your audience and how they react to your adverts. After you have gained a few months of data, you will be able to see what works and make changes to target your ads to the right people and you will see more results.

The benefits of Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a great way to fast track visitors to your website.  Some of its benefits are:

• Control Advertising: You have complete control over your ads, ad text, keywords, and who your ads are served to.
• Control Spending: You have complete control over your bids and your budget, and how this is spent across your ads.
• Only pay for clicks: Google AdWords is a pay per click method, which means that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
• Collect Data: You can collect statistics to help you better understand your audience and how they are searching for you.
• Track Prospects: Track users from your ads to your website, and how they are converting.
• Track ROI: With spending completely visible, you can track how this is performing against your sales to analyse Return on Investment and Ad Spend effectively.
• Bids aren’t always important: You don’t always have to place a high bid to secure a high ad position. Ad positions are also calculated on relevancy to the search term and landing page, chances of conversion, and a host of other factors.

Should my firm use Google AdWords?

Accountants can use Paid Search for different activities, such as targeting brand searches, or advertising services, events and recruitment. It works for almost any business, however there are some circumstances where you might rethink using this service, particularly when:

• You have launched a new service no one has heard of, and will likely not be searching for it online.
• Your audience is very niche and so the keywords are limited without spending your entire budget.
• Your website is not engaging - if you’re advertising on a website that is not engaging, it’s likely your clicks will not convert effectively.
• The keywords you use are very competitive, which means you may need a bigger budget to perform better.
• You don’t have the time to optimise your account – regularly optimising the campaign set up, Adgroups and keywords is crucial if you want to get the best results from AdWords.

Thinking about using paid search to generate new leads for your firm? Listen to an on-demand version of the PracticeWEB webinar about paid search.