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Search Marketing Effectiveness

Let's run a little "search marketing effectiveness" demo:
We'll use the keyword "coffee" because I like coffee.

Using Google's Keyword Estimator we find that:

"coffee" cost per click to be in the top 3: $1.69 - $2.13

Now how well does your site convert a visitor into a customer?

Averages for conversions are usually 3-7%, we'll go with 5%.

So your cost is $38.20 per sale/lead.

Is it worth it for your business? Will you make a profit?

Now of course the reason there are SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Firms is because they will find lots of little less competitive phrases to bid on and figure out how to create the best page that the visitors will land on so that both the cost per click goes down and the conversion percentage goes up. So don't feel it's a lost game already.

I personally enjoy the search engine marketing game quite a bit... to look at the number of clicks for a keyword and then see what those clicks turned into... add some more keywords, take some out... change the landing page a bit. It's quite exciting!

But it's not for everyone and it's important to find out if your company can gain a positive ROI through search marketing.

Is search marketing right for your business?

Here are the factors that determine the effectiveness of your search marketing campaign:

• How much profit do you make per new customer?
• How many leads turn into customers?
• Are you targeting a local audience or a national audience? * How many people are searching for your product/service?
• How many competitors are bidding for your keywords?
• What is an average cost per click in your industry?

How do you measure search marketing effectiveness?

Tracking. It's knowing where the visitor came from and where they go to. Conversion tracking can save companies thousands of dollars by telling them what keywords are paying off and which ones are just waisting money.

I know a business that was spending several thousand per month on search engine marketing and now are seeing better results at $500 per month because they optimized the keywords they were bidding on. Conversion tracking is essential to search marketing effectiveness.