Great ROIs Through Scientific SEM

Great ROIs Through Scientific SEM

Return on Investment and Goals Definition

The first thing that every successful digital marketer does to ensure they get the biggest return on their marketing budget is to set a goal. This is an absolute for any digital marketer who executes campaigns in a productive, cost-effective way. With a few simple tips, you can be doing the same in no time! What are the steps every savvy digital marketer takes to ensure that they’re on target to hit all their marketing objectives? 

Let’s start with the most basic step. Choose your method. It pays to remember that not all marketing routes will work in the same way for every business: even if the channel you’re considering is trending, it might not fit your brand. Your decisions should directly relate to your company, or you might miss your target audience completely and will have wasted time, effort and money.

Make Realistic Digital Goals

The first step is clearly identifying which goals you want to achieve. Be very specific. Do you want increased engagement on social media? Is your intent to establish a strong network of influencers that can help you be discovered? Do you want to increase leads? Is brand awareness a priority?

 Once you have decided exactly what you’re working towards, this will help you break down the process of hitting your targets and getting high ROI on Social Media Marketing. Ask yourself:

• How wide is the target audience for a given channel?
• Does it reach my intended audience?
• Can it increase my following exponentially?
• Can my business sustain this marketing strategy long term?
• Will it fall within my marketing budget?
• How easily will I be able to measure success through a given strategy?
• Does it allow me to clearly communicate my brand’s intended message?
• Do the channels I’m considering work together to convey my message?

Keep Your Progress Consistently Aligned To Your Goals

Always keep your goals in sight when organizing anything for your company. When deciding new steps check if they achieve your goals or alter them. This ensures you stay focused and prevents you from further investing and over exerting your budget on anything that won’t help you achieve.

As your budget progresses and evolves, continue referring to your SMART objectives. Stay focused and remember your goals – they will always inform you what your next step will be!

Get ready for revenue! 

Once the basic structure is in place, we can now start thinking of our ROIs.

What is Return on Investment – ROIs?

Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure that evaluates the efficiency of an investment or compares the efficiency of a number of different investments. Although it is a value created from an investment of time or resources, most people think of ROI in terms of currency. To calculate ROI, the benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. The result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. If: you invest $1,000 and earn $100, that’s a 10% return on your investment: ($1,000 + $100) / $1,000 = 1.10, or 10%. If your ROI is 100%, you’ve doubled your initial investment. 

What is the formula for return on investment?

ROI is calculated by subtracting the initial value of the investment from the final value of the investment (which equals the net return), then dividing this new number (the net return) by the cost of the investment, and, finally, multiplying it by 100.

If after planning and watching your goals being met (or not) it may be time to switch up your SEM plan? If your results are just OK, you need to make changes in strategy, as it is already costing you marketing dollars.

If you bid for ad placement, know the traffic you can expect, and even plan ahead to multiply your expected traffic by your conversion rate to get an anticipated return on investment (ROI), you can do better. 

Don’t plan your expected SEM ROI after setting up a campaign, it should be the basis of your strategy. If Google’s constant algorithm updates and changes make SEM complex, it doesn’t have to be anymore. 

So how can we increase ROI through Social Media Marketing?

Imagine how powerful planning is that more than half this blog is about the same. Here we say it one more time.

1. Plan Your Goals: SEM goals cannot be a carved in stone formula — ROI is determined by many factors and one size doesn’t fit all. Google offers this formula to determine the profit you’ve made from your ads compared to what you’ve spent on those ads: 

ROI = (Revenue – Cost of goods sold) / Cost of goods sold

 Remember to tally your costs, your revenue-to-cost ratio (including things like pay-per-click spend, display ad clicks, and agency fees, if applicable), and your customer lifetime value (LTV).

1. Optimize your site

If you have a weaker website than your competitors or unattractive landing pages, even the strongest goals cannot help. Optimize your website first and add new, high-quality content consistently so you continue to build strong SEO. 

Ideally, your website should load fast, have strong security features, easy navigation, and is optimized with meta descriptions, headings, page titles, and a sitemap. You also should optimize landing pages, for clear messages and CTAs that lead customers to the desired action.

1. Track your conversions

Set up conversion tracking to effectively draw data from ads, purchases, and form submissions. Companies that do not set up conversion tracking, have no idea of how their SEM program is performing. 

Conversion tracking gives insight into performance and gathers valuable data on customer action that you can use to iterate your program down the line. 

1. Review your keywords regularly

Some keywords are more effective than others. When you invest in a range of keywords, it also makes sense to revisit their order of importance. If some keywords have consistently proven unprofitable, consider dropping them altogether. Think about keywords for each purchase process phase, and plan based on the ROI you can expect from each keyword on your list. It is crucial to have proper tracking even for this. These are your SEM program’s lifeline in terms of performance and the highest ROI-generation.

5.  Structure your SEM campaigns properly

Calculate your cost per acquisition (CPA) that will generate a profit. When you compete for ad spaces purposefully, you know when to put more money into an ad, and when to withdraw it. 

Not using negative keywords, paying too much per click, and opting for a “set it and forget it” process instead of analyzing and iterating are common mistakes mot businesses make.

6.  Target scoring leads

Digital marketing pros know the value of inbound leads, these help you can see the assigned value a lead has and where it ranks compared to other leads. This helps your sales team to know who to contact first, and helps you better understand the connection between keywords, conversions, and your overall SEM program.

At the end of the day, business is about driving the right conversions. It’s worth noting that data will not always be immediately clear but with the correct tools in place, you’ll start to see the path to real results. Appedology can help you look at what’s driving actual revenue, and set you up to drive high-quality conversions that continuously improve your bottom line. Want to know more? Let’s talk numbers.