Would you like to start a paid search advertising campaign? Here's how you can do it.

Many small business owners who see the opportunity to use paid search advertising online for the first time believe that it will just be a matter of filling in a few blanks and creating a text ad. However, the reality is that it will require a bit more effort than that. Here's how you can create a successful paid search advertising campaign for your small business.

• Decide whether you want to do it alone or hire an agency to manage your advertising

You can use a Search Engine Optimization Agency to help you manage your advertising campaigns for you. They can take care of all the aspects of your online advertising and make changes as necessary to give you optimum results. However, you will need to pay a bit more than if you were managing your advertising by yourself.

• Think of your monthly budget

While paid search ads can be quite cost effective, they're not the cheapest form of online advertising. Even though it is possible to get started for about $100, if you want good results, then you will need to prepare a budget of at least a few hundred dollars per month.

• Do some research on your competition

When you advertise a product or service in the online world, chances are you will have competitors that are actually selling the same things than you are and advertising via the same channels. Look up your competition for your desired keywords and your targeted geographical area. See what their ads, landing pages and offers look like, and how you can make yours better than competing websites. A search engine marketing agency can help you analyze the level of competition that you have as well.

• Be prepared to build additional pages on your website and make changes to existing pages

For better results with paid search ads, it's recommended that you build specific pages for your offers, rather than simply linking to your main website. This will give your site visitors an immediate look at what you're offering and can increase your conversion rates. Your landing pages need to offer the visitor the required information in a concise way and also include a clear call to action.

• Prepare several ad groups with different keywords

This will allow you to keep track of which keywords and ad groups result in the most conversions for you, allowing you to keep the best performing ones. A search engine marketing agency can help you set up different tracking solutions for your ads and also provide you with expert advice on how you can write higher converting ads, as well as choose the best keywords for the products that you're offering.