Google recently launched a new campaign to reactivate its dormant Adwords users with a $100 offer. I was the lucky winner of a few of these coupons as I have run paid search campaigns for companies and clients in the past.  With over 1 million customers, it’s not like Google is hurting for cash. However, I think it’s important to note that if you were to ask any businesses 4 or 5 years ago if they were marketing online, running PPC (pay per click) ads on Google Adwords would be the first thing out of their mouth.

Since the heyday of paid search we have seen the adoption of blogging, social media, video, and the reinvented interest in SEO. What do all of these have in common? They are all inbound marketing channels. With the explosion of inbound marketing - which costs you your time –outbound tactics, like paid search and display have fallen out of focus. After all, why wouldn’t you spend all of your time blogging, networking, and optimizing your website if it costs you nothing, established you credibility & brand, and provides amazing results? Plus, if you have a small business with limited budget it makes sense to put all of your eggs in the proverbial “inbound basket.” Right?

There’s certainly some truth here. No matter what your industry or company size, if you’re ready to market your products and services, I suggest mastering inbound marketing first and think about the outbound later. In fact, the skills you develop from the execution of inbound marketing tactics can have an incredible impact on the performance of outbound channels.

Also, just because paid search is an outbound marketing tactic doesn’t mean you have to approach it with an outbound mentality. Here are 4 ways inbound thinking can impact your paid search efforts:

1.       Compliment your successful inbound marketing tactics

Paid search be a useful tool for expanding the reach of landing pages and offers that have shown success via inbound marketing. Start a paid search campaign with keywords center around your offer or blog post title. If done correctly, you can drive incremental leads and sales to these campaigns. 

2.       Fill in the gaps of your current SEO program

Search can be a highly competitive and saturated space. Inbound marketing tactics teach marketers to focus on the long tail where traffic may be low but your ability to convert customers can be amazing. However, there may be some terms that don’t necessarily fit the inbound mold - say keywords you competitors are bidding on and where you think it’s valuable to play. Starting a paid search campaign centered around competitor keywords and offers can give your business visibility and let your competitors audience know there are alternatives.  Proceed with caution here though – although it’s perfectly acceptable to bid on terms you see your competitor bidding on, stay away from bidding on their trademarked terms. Not only is it of poor taste, but it can get you in trouble too.

3.       Test new landing pages, keywords and variations

Have you created new landing pages or thought of new keywords you’d like to rank for organically? Create a paid search campaign targeting the keywords you would like to rank for via SEO and direct them landing pages and offers you’re testing.  In just a few weeks you will have tons of data about how popular the keywords are (impressions), how relevant your offer or service is to those keywords (click-through-rate), and how well your copy and offer is aligned with people searching for that keyword (conversion rate). Plus, if you start your campaign with broad match keywords you’ll be able to gather a list of performing keywords to add to your SEO wish list.

4.       Think outbound when it comes to campaign structure.

Campaign structure is critical to running a successful paid search program. Instead of building your campaigns around the keywords and people you are targeting, try building them around you’re your products, services, and offerings. Then, build adgroups of keywords within those campaigns that are geared towards relevant keywords and matching headline and ad copy. You’ll find it much easier to handle the addition of new products, offers, and tests.

Obviously, paid search isn’t the only outbound marketing channel that could learn a thing or two from inbound marketing thinking. What’s your take?