The rocketing costs of keywords -- projected by JupiterResearch to soar from an average of $0.36 in 2004 to $0.47 in 2009 -- means that marketers who don't focus now on increasing ROI from paid search will soon be unable to afford effective search engine marketing at all.
Luckily, staying ahead of your competitor in the paid search field can be relatively simple:
"The best practice for search marketers is to have each keyword lead to a unique landing page, which is tied conceptually to the keyword itself," writes Gary Stein of JupiterResearch, in his December 2 report, entitled Landing Page Optimization: Maximizing Search ROI Through Simple Merchandising.
However, many merchants control hundreds of keywords, making customized landing pages for each term an unrealistic goal. Instead, create customized landing pages only for those keywords that bring the most activity to your site.
Then create broader category pages for terms that drive traffic but can still be bundled together sensibly.
For example, a travel destination site might create a single category landing page that encompasses lodging, car rentals, and entertainment in Florida. A separate category page might cover trips to Disney World.
Many companies stop customization at that level. But with tools like Offermatica, which works as a hosted application, merchants can highlight specific, relevant products within the broader category page, creating in essence a semi-customized page for individual users.
So, while a user who types in "Miami Beach hotels" might find himself at the broad Florida travel page, a specific Miami Beach hotel can be plugged into the page as a promotion. He might see, for example, a marketing box reading: "20% off a three night stay at the Miami Beach Marriot!"
By highlighting particularly relevant products, which tie back to the source keyword, merchants will increasingly be able to generate positive ROI, increase keyword spend, and successfully compete against bigger merchants with deeper pockets.