Grow Your Ag Business in 2021 With Paid Search

1. Nail your keyword targeting

If you don’t establish a comprehensive keyword targeting strategy, you’re losing out on high-quality leads. Google has seen the number of searches for key equipment industry terms grow every year for more than 10 years, so it’s important that your keyword list is kept up-to-date to keep up with the evolving needs of your customers.

AGRICULTURE & FARM EQUIPMENT KEYWORDS

Build your keyword targeting around the different types of equipment and services that you offer. Include a mix of short- and long-tail keywords to maximize your coverage and capture all relevant search queries.

• Short-tail ag and farm keywords: Generic keywords like ‘tractor rental’ or ‘corn headers’ will yield the highest traffic and impressions, which is great for searchers in the consideration-level of the buying journey. By clicking through from your ad, these users can learn more about your services and inventory, and find their nearest location.
• Long-tail ag and farm keywords: Specific keywords like ‘John Deere 9620RX for sale’ will yield very few searches, but they still serve a very important purpose. It’s the users who are further down the sales funnel who make these searches, because they already know exactly what manufacturer and model they want to purchase. You want your ad to appear in the results every single time for these types of keywords because this is where you can capture higher quality leads.

NEGATIVE KEYWORDS ARE EQUALLY AS IMPORTANT

You want to bid on keywords like ‘John Deere tractor,’ but don’t want to pay for ads on terms like ‘John Deere hat’ or ‘John Deere toy tractor.’ That’s where negative keyword lists come in—they allow you to exclude certain keywords or phrases so you never waste ad spend on searches that are more relevant to national brands or the manufacturers you represent.

In the agriculture and farm equipment industry, there are a variety of negative keywords that you need to add to your advertising accounts. As new words or phrases come up, you should continue growing your negative keyword library to use your budget most effectively and generate only relevant leads for your business.

2. Remember more spend doesn’t always mean better results

Your overall budget and bids matter, but there are a few more factors that affect how and where your ads are shown in search results. 

1. Quality Score: To earn a high quality score, your ad copy should closely match what the user typed into the search bar. And, your landing page must be relevant to the user’s search. This is why a granular account structure and high-quality landing pages are essential to the success of paid search. Another important factor to consider is the expected CTR, which is determined by your ads’ past click-through performance. Google trusts accounts that have done well in the past, which means you can ensure a high quality score with relevant ads and landing pages, along with strong performance over the duration of your ad campaigns.
2. Format Impact: Take the time to consider and add every possible relevant ad extension to your account. These are taken into consideration when your ad rank is determined and if you’re missing one or many, you may not be able to show in the top position for relevant searches.
3. Maximum Cost-per-Click (CPC) Bid: This one is pretty simple; bid high enough so that you aren’t missing out on the potential to rank in the number one spot. Don’t overbid or spend beyond your budget, but for your priority keywords, make sure you’re bidding enough to rank in the top position. 

Still unsure how much you should be spending on digital advertising? We put together a budgeting resource for equipment dealers that you can use to help determine appropriate spend for each location. 

3. Keep an eye on major changes that impact ad formats or search results

You always want your search ads to appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), and in order to do so, you need to stay up to date on major changes affecting Google’s digital advertising best practices.

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CHANGES YOU SHOULD KEEP TABS ON:

1. Major changes to ad formats that impact the messaging you are able to deliver to your audience
2. Major changes to the SERP layout or design that impact how and where paid search results appear to users

The differences between paid and organic search results are becoming more subtle, making it difficult for users to differentiate between ads and organic results at a glance. Results fluctuate often as Google releases new ad betas and changes the SERP multiple times per year. By staying on top of changes as they’re happening, you can keep your ads optimized and ensure you’re always delivering the right message to the right user. 

4. Measure success by sales, not just leads

Just like any sales and marketing investment you make, your goal in digital marketing should always be to generate sales. Paid search can help you do that by filling your funnel with quality leads that convert.

To measure performance by conversions and not just clicks, connect your pipeline and track leads all the way through to the final sale. User-level tracking can help you achieve this by recording lead activity all the way from a customer’s first click to the final sale. With the right tools and reporting, you can clearly attribute leads and sales to the appropriate marketing channel. 

Digital Marketing for Ag & Farm Dealers

Digital marketing is a powerful tool because it fills your sales funnel and helps drive equipment deals for you. Keep these four insider tips in mind to increase the number of quality leads generated by paid search each month.

As an agriculture and farm equipment industry expert in digital marketing, Adpearance wants to partner with you. Reach out for a free digital analysis to discuss opportunities for your business in 2021.