And so digital marketing’s acronym carousel continues to turn… Following other industry shorthand, like SEM (search engine marketing), SEO (search engine optimization), SERP (search engine results page), CTR (clickthrough rate) and ROI (return on investment) among others, PPC has long since been ingrained in the toolbox of nearly every internet marketing professional. So that we’re all on the same page, PPC stands for pay-per-click, a means of advertising online.
Working as part of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy, PPC advertising can be a supremely effective effort for driving targeted traffic to your website. Thanks to such readily available tools as Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter, PPC advertising is very accessible to any level of user. Bid-based placemen on both Google and Bing allow you to “bid” on keywords for which your custom ads will be shown. Along with best practices, such as well-crafted landing pages, your PPC campaigns are capable of driving higher conversions - be it purchases, form submissions, newsletter signups, etc. - as well as ROI nearly 3-5 times stronger than other online advertising and marketing channels.
When using PPC as a digital marketing effort for you company or clients, there are a few common pitfalls we would like to help you avoid:
1.) DON’T research unintelligently- Opening your browser of choice and searching away is not the most effective means of keyword or competitive research. At the very least, be sure that you’ve logged out of your browser account, cleared both your cache and navigation history, and paid indicated your geographic location (valuable if researching geographically) before kicking off any keyword research. Search engines tailor results to your historical online activity, and logging out ensures your results are not skewed.
2.) DON’T rely on keyword research alone- Keyword research is great, but common sense can go a long way too. While high-volume keywords are enticing to target and bid on, relevance is the factor with which you should be most concerned - that is, relevance to what you offer and what your target audience is searching for. Try putting yourself in the mindset of your ideal visitor and mimicking their expected search habits. Such insight, when applied to an thorough keyword list, should yield a mix of highly relevant widely-searched terms, as well as longer/lower-trafficked terms around which often drive higher conversion rates.
3.) DON’T forget landing pages- Landing pages may be the single most important tool in terms of generating ROI from your PPC campaign. However, with the ease of PPC implementation offering an immediate time to market, this critical aspect is often glossed over. Generating unique landing pages for each ad group, with a strong call to action tailored specifically to match a given visitor’s query, can increase your conversions exponentially versus simply tying your ads to stale pages on your website.
4.) DON’T allow for audience habituation- In order to combat against visitors potentially ignoring your ad (which, if you can believe it, may happen after just a single view), make sure you create at least three ad variations per ad group. While fighting with the character restrictions ads often contain can be tediuous, it’s worth it to ensure that each ad contains a unique headline, body and call to action. This way, your target audience(s) won’t be inundated with the same ad every time, thus reducing the possibility of it being overlooked. Having multiple ad variations in place also allows you to test different messaging and how it impacts your clickthroughs and conversions.
5.) DON’T set it and forget it- While a PPC account will continue to serve your ads until searches on your keywords dry up or your budget is exhausted, simply setting and forgetting will not yield the best results. Review your bid levels weekly to make sure that they’re set above minimum first-page levels. Review your keywords monthly to eliminate non-performers (low impressions and zero clicks) and look for new opportunities (based on new or revised offerings, jargon, etc.). Make ad copy revisions every couple months to keep the content fresh. Tweak or add new landing pages as needed to accommodate account growth (ad group additions) or changes in your messaging or conversion strategy. Simply put, improvements are always abound.
This list is, by no stretch, meant to be exhaustive. It’s but a handful of tips one can add to all of the other tips floating about regarding how to take full advantage of PPC as part of a digital marketing strategy.
What do you recommend when gearing up for, launching and managing a PPC campaign?