You have seen Google Ads and have probably heard other business pros talk about their ad campaigns, but are PPC ads even worth the effort? The answer is yes and we really only need a few statistics to prove it.
- According to WordStream, 65 percent of all clicks made by users who intend to make a purchase go to paid ads.
- Formstack says that PPC ads are one of the top three generators of on-page conversions.
- PPC visitors are 50 percent more likely to make a purchase than organic visitors.
Starting a Successful PPC Campaign: Focus on These 6 Things
PPC isn’t overly difficult, but there is a bit of a learning curve and planning and research involved if you want to get the best return from your efforts. Here is what you should focus on when starting a successful PPC campaign.
Make Sure Your Website Is Optimized
Before you jump headfirst into the Google Ad Manager, you will need to make sure your website is optimized. Look at your landing pages and make sure they are in line with your ads and engaging. When someone clicks on an ad, it’s because they want to know more about the product or service. If they click the link and it takes them to a page that is not related to the ad, they will likely not convert into a lead or sale – which completely defeats the purpose of paying for the ad.
In addition to making sure your landing pages are relevant, you will need to make sure that they are easy to navigate, load quickly, are aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand, and have no technical problems.
Plan Your Bidding Strategy
Budget is one of the most important aspects of PPC and affects where your ad ends up on the search engine results page. The beauty of PPC is that you have complete control over your budget and do not need thousands of dollars to run a successful campaign. To figure out how much you need to budget for ads, you will need to assess how much a conversion is worth to you and how much of that profit can be used to pay for the ads. It is important to note that budgets can be adjusted and changed at any time and ads can be turned off as needed to ensure that your campaign is successful and money isn’t being wasted on ads that are not converting.
Keyword Research Makes the PPC Dream Work
Another important factor in creating a successful PPC campaign is doing thorough keyword research. If you just throw up ads without doing any keyword research there is no way for search engines to know when to display your ads or, in some cases, what the ad is for. Choosing the right keywords is the best way to ensure that your campaign is successful, and give you the best chance of driving traffic and conversions.
To choose the right keywords, you need to think about what a person would type into their search engine when seeking out a product or service like yours. For example, let’s say you are a florist and Mother’s Day is in a few weeks. You may want to use the term Mother’s Day Flowers in (insert city) or Mother’s Day Flower Delivery in (insert city). Make a list of these terms and see if these terms are being searched by utilizing a keyword planner like Google Keyword Search. Then choose the keywords that work best for your campaign.
Create an Ad That Is Clickable and Irresistible
Now for the fun part, creating the ad. You want to make sure your ad is concise and tells someone exactly what you are selling; always write your ad copy using your chosen keywords with this in mind. If there is something that sets the product or service in your ad apart from your competitors, come up with a short way to say that in your ad.
Make Conversions Happen With a Great Call to Action
Without a great call to action (CTA), all of the work you have done to set up your PPC campaign will be all for nothing. A CTA tells a potential buyer or prospect what to do. It should be short, impactful, and ideally give the person who sees your ad a sense of urgency.
Examples of classic CTAs include:
- Shop now
- Place your order today
- Sign up
- Learn more
- Apply today
- Start now
Monitor Performance and Make Adjustments
Once your ads are up and running you may feel that your work is done, but this is actually where the grind begins.
A great way to test your campaign is with A/B testing. A/B testing lets you run two near-identical versions of the same ad at the same time, with minor differences. You can then figure out what you need to modify. Once you know which version performs better, make the necessary changes so you don’t waste money on an ineffective ad.
Our PPC expert Alex Peters has some insight when it comes to this stage of the ad campaign:
“The most crucial part is optimizing within that first month. Looking at how your keywords are performing and how people are finding your ads based on their search terms. Are they converting the way you want them to? You want to define what would cause engagement to have lower performance. It’s important to look at optimizing regardless of the bidding strategy especially during the first month.”
After your campaign is up and running it is important not to make drastic changes in the beginning life of the campaign, as Google is in a learning process and everything needs an efficient amount of time to collect data before those drastic changes take place.
No Time to Set Up Your PPC Campaign?
You are busy and learning the ins and outs of PPC can be pretty time-consuming. At RSM, we can help you create a campaign that is effective and aligned with your marketing goals. With many years of expertise and a variety of talents on staff, we can do all of the hard work for you so you can focus on your business and generate leads with a well-crafted PPC campaign. Contact us today for more information at 1.877.272.7810 or fill out the form below.
