Currently, there are several methods to boost websites for your events. Today, we will focus on one in particular that is very important when starting out and wanting to generate traffic to our page quickly: search campaigns.
This strategy has been in the market for many years; search campaigns are pioneers of digital advertising. They are simple but effective and allow us to reach our target audience easily. In general terms, these are ads for your site that appear in Google search results.
Creating search campaigns as part of the organizing committee is a key strategy to attract international exhibitors and highly qualified buyers. By using Google Ads, you can leverage keywords that your target audience is already actively searching for, ensuring that your event is presented to the most relevant audiences.
Nowadays, a large portion of event budgets is allocated to social media; however, these platforms, while effective in terms of reach, tend to have overly broad targeting, making direct conversion difficult. Instead, Google Ads allows organizers to reach 90% of internet users worldwide with precise targeting, something essential for B2B events. Therefore, it is crucial to prioritize investment in Google Ads instead of relying solely on Meta, Twitter, or TikTok.
It is important to note that planning campaigns on Google Ads should start at least 8 months before the event. This not only helps attract visitors but also boosts your marketing through each phase.
One of the great benefits of Google Ads is the ability to retain audiences for up to 500 days through remarketing. This allows you to maintain a constant presence in the minds of users, improving conversion rates as the event dates approach.
Key Benefits of Search Campaigns for Exhibitions
- Hyper-targeting: The ability to segment the audience based on users' specific searches is one of the greatest benefits. You can direct your ads to people already searching for events related to your industry or sector.
- Based on what buyers are looking for: Campaigns are based on keywords related to the buyers' needs, ensuring your message reaches those genuinely interested in attending.
- Exhibited in the best media: Ads can appear in top Google search results, as well as on a network of relevant websites, increasing the event's visibility in places where audiences are already searching for related information.
- Full control over the budget: Event organizers have full control over the campaign budget, allowing them to allocate more resources to high-performing keywords or areas and optimize spending.
- Real-time adjustments: One of the great advantages of Google Ads is the ability to adjust campaigns in real-time. If a strategy isn't working as expected, changes can be made quickly to improve results.
- Pay-per-performance: With the pay-per-click (PPC) model, you only pay when a user interacts with your ad. This ensures that your investment goes exclusively to actions that generate results, such as clicks, registrations, and inquiries.
- Visibility and cost control: The platform provides full transparency on how every penny of your budget is spent. This not only helps control costs but also allows for more precise measurement of return on investment (ROI).
How Do Search Campaigns Work?
These ads allow us to reach users who perform Google searches related to what we offer. It's important to define where we want to place these ads; it won’t be effective if we don’t properly segment our market.
To achieve this, there are two types of search campaigns:
- Organic search strategy: This is a content strategy in which a specialist structures and organizes the information on a website to meet search algorithms and bots, so the site ranks in the top positions without needing to generate a payment.
- Paid search strategy: This is based on analyzing and using the most successful keywords related to our topic and event, so our website ranks first when audiences use them. For this service, we need to pay search engines for the ad.
Types of Ads in the Search Network: Common Formats and Tags
- Text ads: These are the most common and can include responsive, dynamic, and call-only search ads. These ads appear with the "Ad" or "Ads" label in search results and may also appear with the "Google Ads" label on partner sites. They often include additional information, such as the business location or phone number.
- Shopping ads: These show products for sale and provide links to these products. They are labeled "Sponsored", "Ad" or "Ads" in search results and may also carry the "Google Ads" label on partner sites.
- Video or image ads: These can appear in search results as videos or images and are hosted by search partners.
To start advertising, it is important first to recognize some of the automated options that can be applied to launch a search campaign:
- Maximize clicks: In this method, you are charged for every click users make on your ad, regardless of whether any valuable actions like registration are completed. It increases website visits.
- Target impression share: In this option, you are charged per thousand impressions (or the times the ad is shown in search results), regardless of whether users click on the ad or visit the website. It achieves a large reach.
- Maximize conversions: For this tool, the search engine's algorithms have already identified the profile of people who register or submit forms for your event, so it starts showing ads to people with similar profiles.
- Target CPA: To use this option, the search campaign must be active well in advance and already maximize conversions. At this point, we can decide how much we want to pay per form or registration, allowing the platform to optimize its operation, generating more conversions at a lower cost.
- Target ROAS: This type of strategy is useful when charging for event entry, as it tells the tool to get the highest value possible for conversions based on the set ROAS (or return on ad spend). Ads are shown to people with the highest likelihood of purchasing an entry or a higher-cost ticket.
As you saw, a good search strategy attracts well-targeted visitors who generate more and better business for your exhibitors. However, since this is one of the tools with the highest cost-per-click in the market, it’s advisable to combine it with other strategies within your media mix to maximize your budget efficiently.
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