PPC, or pay-per-click, is an online advertising channel that gets your business noticed by a highly targeted audience. Unlike traditional advertising, PPC allows you to bid on keywords specific to your business, to have your ads displayed when someone searches for those keywords without paying for the ad space upfront, because only pay when someone clicks on that ad. That’s a pretty neat deal!
This blog post will discuss the benefits of PPC, campaign set up, optimization tips, and some common mistakes to learn from.
Getting to know PPC ads
Using PPC as part of your overall digital marketing strategy has many benefits. It is an extremely effective way to reach new customers and generate leads and sales for your business. Additionally, with PPC you can target specific keywords and demographics, so you know that the people who are seeing your ads are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. PPC is also a great way to test out new products or services before investing in more traditional forms of advertising.
Setting up a PPC campaign
If you're thinking about using PPC as part of your marketing strategy, here are three things you need to keep in mind:
Choose the keywords you want to target
Create ad copy that speaks to your target audience
Set up a budget and bid on your chosen keywords
Optimization tips for your PPC campaign
Once you've chosen the right keywords and created effective ad copy, it's time to start optimizing your PPC campaigns. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your campaigns:
1. Test, test, test!
Try different ad copies, landing pages, and bidding strategies to see what works best for your business.
2. Keep an eye on your quality score
This is a measure of how relevant and useful your ads are to users, and it can impact both your costs and your ad ranking.
3. Use negative keywords
These are words or phrases that you don't want your ad to show up for. Adding negative keywords to your campaign can help you save money and improve your ad relevance.
Common mistakes to learn from
PPC is only effective when its managed properly, otherwise it can quickly drain your advertising budget by showing up for irrelevant searches and reducing your quality score. Here are some common mistakes that businesses make when setting up their PPC campaign, and what you can so to avoid them:
1. Dismissing the quality score
In most cases, Google's quality score is a numerical representation of your business. When people click on your ad, Google will charge you less if your quality score is higher. As a result, quality score is vital to business success because it has the potential to save money and place you ahead of the competition.
Google Ads will show you your quality score, and you can boost it with a few simple tactics:
Target the right audience: Make use of long-tail keywords, to ensure that you only invite qualified leads to your website.
Provide useful information: Create content for your website that educates and assists those who click on your ads.
Allow visitors to convert easily: To encourage potential customers to become repeat customers, include calls to action (CTAs) to assist them along your buyer’s journey.
2. Using ‘match types’ incorrectly
In Google Ads, you may choose from three different keyword settings – broad match, phrase match and exact match. Businesses essentially use broad match to reach out to a larger audience and exact match to ensure that only qualified traffic or leads visit your site. Phrase match is a good blend of both, and depending on your goals, it can be just as valuable as the other options.
You could waste a lot of money by targeting the wrong audience if you do not specify these goals early on, and as such, its critical to understand which option is best for your business. For increasing traffic to your website, you might want to stick to broad match; however, if you’re looking for conversions explicitly, exact match may help you achieve the ROI you want.
3. Neglecting negative keywords
As discussed earlier in the blog, these are those keywords or phrases which when searched for, shouldn’t display your ad. This is especially useful for broad and phrase match keywords when a few words can completely change the meaning of a keyword. As a result, your ad will not be triggered for the topics you don’t want to be known for and the user won’t see irrelevant results.
Negative keywords, in general, will remove unnecessary searches and increase your quality score, allowing you to save money in the long term. They will also help you build credibility, as you will only be attracting those people who are most likely to buy from you.
4. Ignoring geographic targeting
Also known as ‘geo-targeting’, geographic targeting allows you to tailor your advertisements to a specific geographic location. This is especially useful for businesses who want to attract customers within a specified radius of their target location. If you overlook geo-targeting, you can potentially ruin your quality score and accidentally raise the cost of particular keywords.
You can begin geo-targeting your advertising with Google Ads' regular choices. To avoid overpaying for clicks or unfairly inflating keyword pricing for businesses in other locations, limit your ad display to a specific region. When you’re targeting a smaller region, you will be able to acquire more qualified leads when people click on your ad, which will improve your quality score and save you money.
5. Missing out on long-tail keywords
These search terms are long phrases that usually indicate towards a user’s intent to convert. Long tail keywords, are usually more targeted, inexpensive, and better for businesses to use. They focus your efforts towards a specific customer base, albeit you’re trying to reach out to a broader audience. With long tail keywords, you get to target the customers that are most likely to convert.
Basically, this means you will get a lot of quality traffic based on a user's intent to buy, even if you do not attract a lot of traffic. After all, those are the kind of folks and businesses you want to visit your site in the first place!
PPC can be a highly successful strategy to attract new customers, generate leads, and increase revenue for your business. By following the tips in this blog post, you can set up a successful campaign to help you achieve your marketing goals. And if you need any help along the way, we're always here to help!
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