Budgeting for SEM

Paid search accounts are becoming so highly optimized that there isn’t much wiggle room. This means if search volume dips, you may not see much you can do about it without blowing your budget.

Seasonal shifts in search for any given niche can affect your traffic. This means you can manage budget allocation throughout the year to even the spikes and dips. during certain times of year

Current events can also affect traffic – in mmore ways than one. When Patrick Swayze passed away, not only did anything ‘Swayze’ sell like mad, but domains did as well as people rushed to cash in. This meant that the people setting up Swayze fan websites to sell Swayze gear made money – and so did the people who instantly snapped up domains and resold them to those website developers!

However, people who regularly sold Swayze items might have crashed and burned if their budget went out of control with hits in the 48 hours following the death of the original ‘Dirty Dancer’. Making sure caps are in place and third party costs are covered keeps your SEM budget from getting hopelessly in a snarl. Having a thirty day rollover period that you track for trends and anomalies helps, too.

If you are overpacing, you can optimize out of your worst performing ads, keywords, and ad groups. It’s a quick fix – cut back! However, underpacing is usually harder to fix When you’re underpacing, you may have to face the truth – that your budget is insufficient for the desired result. Bite the bullet and do it early rather than late!

If you manage your SEM budget carefully, you can come out ahead at the end of the year, with ideas on how to make the next year even better!