Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

Despite the tough economy and the fact that many companies are cutting portions of their budgets, most are maintaining their presence online and adopting an even more competitive, aggressive approach. The following tips can be utilized to help differentiate your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising/contextual advertising strategy from your competitors’.

1. Evaluate the messaging your competition is using within their PPC and contextual ads, and determine how to make your creative stronger. It’s got to really stand out. For example, use questions, customer testimonials and of course your strongest offer within your ad text.

2. Consider going beyond text ads and using formats such as PPC expandable ads and video ads while keeping the tips mentioned above in mind.

3. Research variations of keywords for which the competition is not showing up. This will ensure you are not paying as high of a cost-per-click (CPC) and that you are receiving a greater share of visibility within the online space.

4. Consider specific targeting methods such as geo-targeting, demographic targeting and targeting specific times of the day with your ads. This can help your dollar go farther and strengthen your online presence.

These are just some of the ideas that can be used to help your search engine marketing (SEM) strategy stand out from the competition; however, the most important thing to keep in mind is to continually monitor and optimize your strategy. This will ensure your results are as strong as they can be, and that can be the greatest way you differentiate your organization from its competitors.