Search engine marketing (SEM) is a powerful way to drive traffic and conversions to your website. But it can also be a source of conflicts, especially if you have multiple stakeholders, goals, and campaigns. How can you resolve these conflicts and optimize your SEM performance? Here are some tips to help you.
Resolving conflicts in SEM starts with identifying the source of the issue. Divergent or unclear objectives, competing or overlapping keywords, and inconsistent or outdated data are all common causes of conflict. For example, different stakeholders may have varying expectations or priorities for the campaigns, leading to confusion and tension. Additionally, you may have to choose the right keywords to target and bid on, and your own campaigns may compete with each other for the same keywords. Lastly, using different tools or platforms or not updating your data regularly can lead to wrong decisions due to inconsistent or outdated information. All of these can affect the strategy and budget allocation and result in higher costs and lower quality scores.
In SEM, resolving conflicts involves pinpointing their sources. Common causes include divergent objectives, overlapping keywords, and inconsistent data. Stakeholders may have different expectations, causing confusion and tension. Choosing the right keywords is critical, as internal competition for the same keywords can occur. Additionally, using varied tools or outdated data can lead to poor decisions, impacting strategy and budget allocation, potentially increasing costs and lowering quality scores. Recognizing these sources is key to addressing and mitigating conflicts in SEM campaigns.
By grounding all SEM discussions and decisions in data, conflicts can be resolved more effectively. The focus on objective evidence helps steer conversations away from subjective opinions and towards finding strategies that deliver measurable results. Data-driven decision-making: Emphasize the importance of data in evaluating SEM performance. Use performance metrics, analytics, and A/B testing results to guide discussions and support decisions. This helps remove subjective opinions and biases, focusing on evidence.
The second step to resolve conflicts in SEM is to communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders. Before launching any SEM campaign, it’s important to define and align objectives with your team and stakeholders. Establish clear and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets that reflect objectives and track progress. To avoid competing or overlapping keywords, use a shared keyword strategy that defines the scope, relevance, and value of each keyword for each campaign or product. Additionally, use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant or low-performing terms and prevent cannibalization. To ensure consistent and accurate data, rely on a single source of truth for your SEM campaigns. This means using the same tool or platform to collect, store, and analyze data, updating it regularly. Use a common format and language to report and share data with team and stakeholders.
The third step to resolve conflicts in SEM is to test and optimize your campaigns. A/B testing is a good way to do this, as it allows you to compare two versions of an ad, landing page, or other element of your SEM campaign and determine the best combination for your objectives and audience. Automation and AI are also helpful technologies that can help you automate and improve your SEM campaigns. Additionally, feedback and best practices can provide valuable sources of information and guidance for your SEM campaigns. By soliciting the opinions and suggestions of your team, stakeholders, and customers, as well as researching and benchmarking competitors and industry leaders, you can gain insights into how to apply their strategies and tactics to your own SEM campaigns.
Simplificar la estructura. Contrario a lo que se hacía anteriormente donde se utilizaban estructuras SEM hypergranulares, hoy en día gracias a la evolución de la inteligencia artificial, la estructura SEM puede ser mucho más simple y aprocechar al máximo las herramientas de aprendizaje automático e inteligencia artificial para mejorar el rendimiento. Lo más importante es asociar el desempe?o de la campa?a al objetivo deseado de la misma.
The fourth step to resolve conflicts in SEM is to adapt and innovate your campaigns. To do this, you should monitor and evaluate your performance using KPIs and targets as benchmarks, analyze data regularly to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and compare your performance with competitors and industry standards. Additionally, implement changes and improvements based on the results and insights from testing, automation, feedback, and best practices. Furthermore, explore new possibilities and trends by using creativity and curiosity to experiment with new ideas for SEM campaigns, as well as research and analysis to anticipate customer needs and the evolving opportunities of the market.
Conflicts in SEM are inevitable, but they can also be opportunities to improve and excel. By following these four steps, you can resolve conflicts in SEM and achieve your goals. Remember to identify the sources of conflict, communicate and collaborate, test and optimize, and adapt and innovate. You can also use tools and resources, such as Google Ads , SEMrush , or Moz , to help you with your SEM campaigns. What are some of the conflicts you have faced or resolved in SEM? Share your experiences and tips with us.