As PPC marketers, we are always looking for that silver bullet – that ad platform that helps us hit account goals and take businesses to the next level. When we find it, we naturally tend to place a great deal of our focus there, simply because it makes sense to do so. But did you ever stop and wonder what you would do if your top platform stopped performing for you one day? Would you have a backup plan? As you probably know, diversifying your PPC marketing mix is a great way to safeguard your account from unexpected shifts in the marketplace. In this blog post, we will review the reasons why this is important, as well as steps you can take to start diversifying.
“Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket”
I’ll start by recounting a story of something that recently happened to one of my clients. They were chugging along nicely, spending about $350K per month on one particular search engine with solid performance. Unexpectedly, that search engine found them in violation of a policy and immediately suspended them from advertising until the issue was corrected. I suspect that some of you reading this have been in this situation before and know what a time-consuming process rectifying the situation can be. Needless to say, their digital marketing efforts went from $350K per month to almost nothing, as they weren’t diversifying their PPC marketing mix at all. Correcting the policy issue took longer than expected, which resulted in the client having to scramble for other options quickly. Had they already been diversifying, there would have been a cushion for them to fall on while they worked out their policy issues.
Reaching New Audiences
Not all PPC platforms are created equal and not all people use all platforms. With that said, diversifying your online marketing mix can help you reach new audiences that you weren’t reaching before. Oftentimes, one of the most common things I hear clients say is, “We’re doing great with what we have, but how do I scale?” Diversifying is certainly one way to work towards that. This is also important for clients who want to place less focus on their branded terms and devote budget to finding new users to introduce to their brand. Dealing with that situation in the past, I found success diversifying into areas such as native, social and programmatic advertising.
A Little Cross-Pollination Across Ad Platforms Can Do A Lot Of Good
If you’re looking to increase results, diversifying into different platforms could be the thing to help you achieve that goal. For example, think about how social media, coupled with PPC can make an impact on your business. Though the user intent on both platforms is much different, we can use social media to our advantage to capture users higher up in the funnel and then convert them on PPC. Or we can use remarketing to capture those social media users when they are searching across other sites online. There are so many ways we can use multiple platforms to our advantage. We just need to think about specific business needs and then come up with a plan that makes sense.
Try It. You Might Like It.
In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, there are many new platforms that come to the forefront that we have the option to test. Many times, I encounter resistance from clients who are nervous to invest in something new when what we are currently doing is working well. However, there is a lot of value to testing new platforms, as they can help us discover new ways to reach additional people. Doing this can also help your brand get in early on something new, which many times comes with its advantages. So, set aside some budget and test things like programmatic, in-image advertising, native, or anything else that seems to make sense for your business. You may find that some of these new advertising platforms even help with your branded PPC searches.
Where Do I Start?
Are you starting to think you need to diversify more? Don’t know where to start? The first step is to think about what diversification methods make the most sense for your business. Are you a B2B company? If so, maybe LinkedIn is a good idea. Think about where you users might be and then go and find them there. You can start small, see what works, and then grow from there.
What We’ve Learned
Going back to the story I recalled in the beginning of this blog about the company with the suspended site, diversifying your PPC marketing can help you when the unexpected happens on one of your PPC platforms. It gives us a way to “keep going” while we are addressing issues on other platforms. But it also can open a world of opportunity to capture new audiences that you weren’t previously reaching. It might be trial and error at first, but hopefully, diversification will eventually lead you down the path of growth, stability, and success.
