The MAGIC Framework:
Growth strategy is big-picture thinking that takes you out of the day-to-day minutia to evaluate where you want to be and how to get there.
Trying to make business decisions using a tactics-first approach is pure chaos. Here's how we define success metrics, stay strategic, and drive sustainable growth.
Answer: "It depends."
Ever wonder why "it depends" is such a common answer? It's because of how many questions lack essential context and jump straight to tactics.
How can you give a definitive answer without background info? Try answering these questions without any follow up:
How many places should I set at the table?
What gift should I get for my nephew?
Which book should I read?
See the problem?
Yet so many digital marketing questions provide no context at all.
What's a good CTR? How many keywords should we have? How much should we be on spending top of funnel marketing efforts?
A certain answer to a confused question can do more harm than good.
We start with questions that truly matter to the business and work from big-picture goals down to specific tactics.
Strategy means that we have a plan – a good plan – before we start spending money. We aren’t just “buying traffic” or optimizing for algorithms.
We’re thinking about your audience and how to give them what they want, so that they say yes to your offers. We’re looking at stages and awareness and the customer journey not because we love buzzwords, but because we care about how we communicate.
Search engine marketing is really human marketing, it just takes place on search engines.
Our approach
We use this hierarchy to create clear priorities and banish "shiny object syndrome"
Mission: What are we doing and why?
Before setting targets and making plans, we need to clearly understand our core purpose and goals.
Objectives: What does success look like?
Success means reaching measurable goals that align with our mission. We define success with key performance indicators (KPIs) that show our impact.
Strategy: How will we achieve our goals?
Our strategy outlines the main approaches we'll take to reach our objectives.
Tactics: What specific actions will we take?
Tactics are the concrete steps we'll use to carry out our strategy. They can be adjusted based on performance data and local conditions.
Our comprehensive onboarding process
We get really specific on what success looks like for your business, asking questions about your company, metrics, offers, audience, competitive landscape, and even your marketing wish list.
The deliverable:
If your time is spent working in a platform interface, responding to problems you see in the interface, using the tools and setting available in the interface... it leaves no space to zoom out, make a plan, or be strategic. Our strategic roadmaps solve that problem.
It covers categories like:
Key decision-makers, stakeholders and overall business goals
Growth targets and primary marketing objectives
Seasonality, sales cycles and historical performance
Trends and market conditions
SWOT and competitive analysis
Audience insights
Brand and messaging requirements
Stages of awareness, buyer's journey and attribution details
Account and campaign structure
Budget allocation
Strategy-driven targeting and settings
Emerging technologies
Artificial intelligence promises to help businesses operate more efficiently and effectively. Whether it can actually deliver on that promise today is a different story. At Paid Search Magic, we haven't haven't "replaced" any aspect of our business with AI tools, but we do use it to find opportunities and improve processes.
Disconfirming questions: Like Sarah's "2-door riddle" in the movie Labyrinth, we ask ChatGPT disconfirming questions — such as why something might fail or what might be missing. This approach can be incredibly powerful.
Iteration: Generative AI helps us brainstorm and improve strategies and ideas.
Audience needs and insights: When we don't have access to qualitative user data, generative AI helps us fill in the gaps of potential audience pain points and desires.
Message evaluation and edits: We ask ChatGPT for help making our messages more concise.
Downloading every list of "use these exact 181 prompts" hoping we'll look at them one day. It's just not a high value activity.
Execution: We don't use AI tools to complete tasks or deliverables without human oversight.
Writing ads: Character count is spotty at best, and AI tools have a pretty bad idea of what makes a good ad.
Anything without a brief: If we can't validate a response, AI isn't the right tool to be using.
Work with us
Get the training, support, and expertise to fuel your success.