If you’re running ads on your landing pages, you’re most likely tracking the performance of your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. You’ve done a great, hard job. Created an effective PPС strategy to improve performance. And now the main question – what does your traffic look like? Are you disappointed or impressed by the result?
In this article, prepared for you by the google ads agency, you will learn how to run a PPC campaign on several of the most common platforms, as well as six tips on how to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.
Six Ways to Take Your PPC Performance from Good to Awesome
What tactics should you use in improving your PPC:
Build A Strong Account Structure
First, the answer to the main question – what is generally meant by account structure and why is it so important?
In simple terms, this is how you structure your Google Adwords, Meta ads account etc. This allows you to control how your PPC campaign run and when and where you want it to appear. Not having a well-structured account is like trying to drive a car missing many parts. Not without accidents. Keep in mind that for a well-structured account, you need:
- Make sure the search terms that trigger your ads are relevant to your target audience.
- The result is higher quality scores, which in turn leads to better results and lower prices. Quality Score is the value that helps you rank higher in search engines.
- Keep your accounts organized. If they are a mess, your results will most likely drop dramatically (or never be obtained), and PPC optimization process for better results is out of the question.
Focus on High-Performance PPC Keywords
How do you know that selected keywords will be effective? It depends on your goals and what KPIs are important to you.
You may be thinking about what it would be like to pick any specific keywords that you think fit the PPC campaign or seem related. But it’s not. You need to do detailed keyword research and choose those keywords that are not too competitive or do not have low-quality score or low search volume.
How to do it?
- Start by creating a keyword map. To succeed with Google Ads or SEO, you need to have a foolproof keyword research strategy. More about this you can be read in this article.
- Then use the Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords for each ad group.
- It’s best to start with a small number of keywords you use for each ad group (10-20 max)
- Once you have a list of keywords for your ad groups, it’s time to dive into it and start building your PPC campaign.
Further, Build Out Negative Keywords List
Creating and monitoring a negative keywords adwords can help you significantly reduce costs and improve results (especially if you use broad or phrase match types).
If the list of negative keywords is not set up properly, then be prepared for the fact that a very large amount of money for your PPC campaign will be spent, in fact, for nowhere. The most effective way to identify negatives is to look at what people are typing into Google for your PPC ads to appear.
Keep in mind that it’s also important to make sure negative keywords don’t block terms that might be useful for your Google Ads account, so be sure to review the negative lists that are currently set up.
Pause Keywords with Poor Performance
How do you know if a keyword is performing poorly?
First, make sure it runs long and its ad spend is enough to be sure of that thought. If it only works for a few days, we advise you to wait a little more so that a sufficient amount of data has time to accumulate. We also recommend that you investigate to find out why the keyword is not working as expected. Here is a list of some of the most common reasons why this might be the case:
- The keyword bid is not high enough. Take a look at the estimated bid at the top of the page to make sure your bids are competitive with help of Keyword Planner.
- The keyword has a low search volume. If a keyword isn’t getting the traffic it expects despite you setting the bid that’s optimal for it, it could be long tail keywords or just a phrase that users aren’t looking for.
- If you see some keywords generating a lot of impressions, but at the same time they are almost not clicked on, it is important to pause such keywords. Failure to do so will lower the Click Through Rate (CTR) and Quality Score of your PPC ads.
- The match type is either too broad or too restrictive. If the volume is high, but the Click Through Rate, conversions, etc. for a broad keyword is very low, pause it and add a keyword with a more strict match type.
Use targeting options to reach the right audience
One of the things that make PPC marketing so compelling and successful is that you can 100% decide who to show your ads to based on demographics. Over the past few years, Google Ads has made its targeting options even more granular and now offers more targeting settings than ever before.
Here are a few ways you can reach the most relevant audience: age, gender, income level, geographic location, education level, relationship status, and more.
Choosing who you want to target with your keywords is a vital decision and can determine the success rate of your PPC campaign, so use re-target as part of your PPC optimization.
Optimize Ads & Create New Ad Text
The text of ads must be optimized constantly, otherwise, it will not end in anything good. Quality ad copy is an important step in attracting a new target audience to your landing page. If your PPC ads are not attractive and don’t match your keywords, searchers won’t click on them, resulting in less traffic to your site.
You should test and modify your ad copy regularly to improve your PPC campaigns.
- Do you have Black Friday?
- Or offers a special discount in honour of some event?
- Are you having a summer sale?
Include it in your ad text!
Another good recommendation is testing your ad copy. Your ad copy can make or break a click, so it’s important to your PPC optimization process that you test and analyze your copy.
Additional Tips:
- Relevance is very important.
If your keywords are relevant to your ads, they will definitely play a role in a high CTR.
- Use different advertising options
We recommend running two desktop ads and two mobile ads at the same time. This way you check which ones work best.
- Include site links in your ads.
- Your ad copy should be as simple as possible and contain a clear call to action. For example: “Leave a request to get a free audit of your page.” Every ad needs a call so that users know what action they should take before they even click on the ad.
Summary
PPC optimization is an ongoing process.
If you add to this the huge number of new features and updates that come out every year, then you will realize that it is almost impossible to succeed without regular analysis. It is the analysis that will help you improve your PPC optimization strategies.
The best PPC ads are those that are clear, consistent, targeted to the right audience, and in line with what they offer. Use the tips above to help you work towards maximizing your PPC marketing efforts going forward.
