Ahoy, digital marketers and business owners! Imagine your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategy as a high-stakes game of Battleship. Just like in the classic game, where you strategically place your ships and aim to sink your opponent’s fleet, SEM involves a mix of strategy, experimentation, and precision to achieve your marketing goals. Whether you’re new to SEM or looking to refine your approach, this guide will help you understand how to navigate the waters of search engine marketing using the Battleship game as a metaphor.
1. Setting Up Your Fleet: Crafting Your SEM Strategy
In Battleship, your first step is to place your ships on the grid. You carefully choose their locations to maximize their chances of survival while minimizing your opponent’s chances of hitting them.
When you meet a new opponent and you do not know their playing style, the best way to approach this is to base your strategy on best practices.
Similarly, in SEM, when you are starting out, you are unsure of the keywords that may work for your business or the copywriting that attracts the right audience. It doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. There are many case studies and examples online that you can refer to.
Keyword Research
Just as you wouldn’t place a ship in a random spot, you don’t want to choose keywords haphazardly. Conduct thorough research to identify relevant keywords that your target audience is likely to use when searching for your products or services.
In Battleship, you would want to spread your ships out so that it’s harder for your opponents to hit all of them. In SEM, you would also want to have varying keywords to widen the playing field so that you can have more data to study in the future.
Competitive Analysis
Just as you need to consider where your opponent might place their ships, analyze your competitors to understand where they are focusing their SEM efforts. This helps you identify opportunities and gaps in the market.
If it’s working for your competitors, it mostly likely would work for you - to a certain extent. However, knowing what your competitors are doing at the moment is very helpful to business who new to search engine marketing and need somewhere to start.
2. Making Your Moves: Launching Your SEM Campaign
Once your ships are positioned, it’s time to start guessing where your opponent’s ships are located. In SEM, this is akin to launching your campaign.
Ad Creation
Craft compelling ad copy and create engaging landing pages, much like carefully aiming your shots to hit the right targets. Your ads should align with your chosen keywords and address your audience’s needs and interests.
Once your ads are created and launched, this begins the game of experimentation and data collection. Like Battleship, the first few hits may not garner any important information. However, as you continue playing, you may spot patterns or get hints on where the ships are.
In SEM, experienced agencies like Elevate Digital may take a shorter time to optimize and pivot according to the information gathered. If you are new to this, it will probably take more time but you will ultimately get there.
Bid Strategy
In Battleship, you might guess randomly at first, but you refine your approach based on what you learn. Similarly, set your bids for keywords based on their competitiveness and potential ROI. Adjust your bids as you gather more data on which keywords are performing well.
It all begins from assumptions. You assume the ship is somewhere on G4. After an attempt, you’ll get your answer. And you may try again. This time, G5. If it still misses, you may shift to a different area on the grid.
In SEM, marketers sometimes make assumptions (smart and proven ones) on certain strategies. The time spent on pivoting and finding the correct strategy is what differentiates an expert like Digital Elevate and the business owner who has little to no experience in marketing.
The more time you spend on the wrong strategy, the higher your cost-per-click (CPC) and the lower your conversion rates.
3. Hitting the Target: Analyzing Performance
When you score a hit in Battleship, you’re one step closer to sinking your opponent’s ship. In SEM, hitting the target is when you see significant results month after month and sometimes doubling or tripling your conversions. In such moments, that is where you double your efforts.
Focusing Your Efforts
Keep an eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and cost-per-click (CPC). These metrics tell you how well your ads are performing and whether your targeting is effective.
Once you see good results coming in day after day, month after month, it is time to focus your efforts on the ones that are performing better than the rest. Adjust your budget to fund those campaigns that are doing better.
Like in Battleship. When you have hit one part of the ship, you know it is guaranteed that you will sink the ship. You will begin to fire at the surrounding area because you know that’s where it’ll hit.
4. Adjusting Your Strategy: Refining Your Approach
As you discover more about your opponent’s strategy in Battleship, you refine your approach to hit their ships more accurately. In SEM, continuous optimization is key:
Refine Keywords
Based on your performance data, adjust your keyword list. Add new keywords that are driving traffic and remove those that are underperforming.
Once you know what works, marketing is not difficult. Work is needed to find out what works. Also, just because you got it right one time, doesn’t mean you’ll be first place forever. Marketing is a long-term game. It requires constant researching and optimization to be at the top of your game and outrank your competitors.
Optimize Ads and Landing Pages
Make data-driven adjustments to your ads and landing pages to improve their effectiveness. Focus on the elements that are generating the most engagement and conversions.
There’s always room for improvement. Setting up your campaigns is only the start. Most of the work is spent on optimization - finding out how to do things better. These things can never be done within a short period of time. What’s important is you work with a trusted and responsive agency.
Ready to Set Sail?
Mastering SEM requires strategy, patience, and a willingness to adapt. By understanding how to set up your campaigns, make informed decisions, and continuously optimize, you can navigate the SEM seas and steer your business toward success.
If you are good in Battleship, maybe you can be good in marketing as well. So, grab your digital compass and get ready to chart your course. With these SEM strategies in hand, you’re well on your way to achieving your marketing goals and conquering the search engine battlefield.
On the other hand, if you wish to seek professional advice and even work with an agency to achieve your company growth goals, contact the professionals at Elevate Digital today!
댓글