How can you align SEM bidding with your marketing strategy?

1 Know your objectives

Before you start bidding, you need to define your objectives and how you will measure them. What are you trying to achieve with your SEM campaigns? Is it brand awareness, lead generation, sales, or something else? How will you track your performance and ROI? Depending on your objectives, you may use different metrics, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, cost per acquisition (CPA), or return on ad spend (ROAS). You should also set realistic and specific targets for each metric, based on your industry benchmarks, historical data, and budget.

2 Choose your bidding strategy

Once you have your objectives and metrics, you need to choose a bidding strategy that suits your goals and resources. There are different types of bidding strategies, such as manual, automated, or hybrid. Manual bidding allows you to have full control over your bids, but it requires more time and effort to monitor and adjust them. Automated bidding lets you use algorithms and machine learning to optimize your bids, but it may limit your flexibility and transparency. Hybrid bidding combines both manual and automated elements, giving you more balance and customization. You should experiment with different bidding strategies and see what works best for your campaigns.

3 Segment your campaigns

Another way to align your SEM bidding with your marketing strategy is to segment your campaigns based on different criteria, such as keywords, audiences, locations, devices, or seasons. By segmenting your campaigns, you can tailor your bids and ads to the specific needs and preferences of each segment, and improve your relevance and quality score. For example, you may bid higher for keywords that are more competitive or profitable, or for audiences that are more likely to convert. You may also bid lower or pause your campaigns for segments that are less relevant or performing.

4 Monitor and optimize your bids

Finally, you need to monitor and optimize your bids regularly to ensure that they are aligned with your marketing strategy and objectives. You should use analytics tools and reports to track your key metrics and identify any trends, opportunities, or issues. You should also test different bid variations and compare their results. Based on your analysis and testing, you should adjust your bids accordingly to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness. You should also review your budget allocation and distribution across your campaigns and segments, and make sure that you are spending wisely and not overspending or underspending.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?