Search Strategy
Search Justification:
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Research shows that young adults use the internet frequently and that 74.9% are likely to use Google Search (Roy Morgan data, 2017). Furthermore, a significant number of visitors to websites come from search engines (Clay, 2014), so a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy is crucial for capturing potential consumers. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can be highly targeted as they rely on keywords and phrases to trigger ads to display to relevant consumers (Martin, 2017). Furthermore, SEM allows advertisers to track ad performance and determine ad effectiveness, (Kelsey, 2017) making it an essential tool in the digital space.
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To ensure highly targeted and relevant content, keywords were grouped into 4 campaigns and included Free2go, car, getting your licence and discounts. Ad groups were created by selecting a mix of product information and target audience preferences. Buying a car, owning a car and licence information are highly relevant ad groups as the target audience are likely to be reaching these milestones. The Free2go campaign included a branded ad group as well as roadside assistance and travel tips which were both relevant to the brand and the target audience. Branded campaigns are important as they help create brand awareness and increase product visibility to potential consumers (Google AdWords, 2017). Discounts became a campaign because 52.3% of the target audience will go out of their way for a bargain (Roy Morgan, 2017) and because it is Free2go’s unique product offering. The travel discounts section included keywords for Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne hotel deals as the target market prefers big cities when they travel (Roy Morgan, 2017).
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The discounts campaign was given the largest monthly spend of $7500, as it is highly relevant to the target market and a competitive search area. Roy Morgan data (2017) shows this audience is likely to go to theme parks and cinemas, look up entertainment online and plan overseas holidays, so they are likely to be more responsive to discount ads. Search volume was low for the getting your licence and car campaigns, so they were allocated less budget. However, they are an important part of Free2go’s niche product offering, so creating search ads for these areas will increase awareness and capture potential customers. The branded campaign was allocated a reasonable budget of $1250 for the month to increase the potential of ads appearing when consumers are seeking roadside assistance or travel information. The full $10000 was not spent as allocating a higher daily budget to the campaigns caused the CPC to be extremely high and was not sustainable for a free product.