PPC is a quick and effective marketing strategy to get you on Google’s page 1 and in front of your customers.
However, it’s super-expensive and you don’t want to go blowing your PPC or Pay Per Click. The following 5 rules are a quick guide to not wasting your valuable marketing dollars and handing them over to Google.
1. Implementing a PPC Campaign When Your Web site Is Not Converting Users
The very first mistake that PPC campaigns often make is having a poorly designed website. What is the point of spending all that money on Google if your website looks substandard? Sure people are going to land on your site, but as soon as they do they will leave it.
Each PPC campaign should have its own designated landing page that relates directly to the campaign. These pages have got to look amazing otherwise they will not convert. If you are a graphic design company and you have a PPC campaign for the word graphic design, then the landing page for this particular campaign must look absolutely stunning.
HubSpot has created a great article called
2. Targeting As Many Broad Keywords as Possible.
For example, a business that sells Tennis rackets online should target phrases like; ‘buy tennis rackets online’, rather than just the words ‘tennis rackets’. This would spread the budget a lot further and drive traffic for real buyers who are in the market for making a purchase. If you would focus on just tennis rackets you would be getting a whole heap of clicks but not genuine buyers. You want conversions – not inquiries.
3. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are a great way to save you money and are often overlooked by businesses in many PPC campaigns. Negative keywords, if you are unfamiliar with these are words that will prevent your ad from showing up if they have been applied. For example, if you are an electrician in Melbourne, then you would have negative keywords like Sydney, Brisbane or Adelaide as you do not want your ad to appear when users type in ‘electricians Sydney’ as you do not service this area. Negative keywords help your PPC campaign really focus on areas of the business that you want to promote.
As a web design and SEO company, we have negative keywords like: ‘courses’ or ‘cheap’ as we do not want our PPC ads to appear when users type in ‘web design courses’, or ‘cheap SEO’.
4. Check your Analytics
Testing daily is the benchmark for any successful PPC campaign. Login to your Google Analytics and check site traffic for your PPC keywords. If they are low then perhaps look at another keyword or a variation of them. Have a look at your ad as well. Does it encourage browsers to click or does it look like all the other ads above and below it? Have a special offering in the ad, like’ Valentines Day Special’ or ‘ Call for a free quote’. It’s these small simple, minor adjustments that will encourage people to your ad. Also, make sure that the display URL and the landing page URL are the same. Remember to be as relevant as possible when it comes to users clicking on your ad and then going to a specific page. Like us, if you promote a PPC campaign for ‘ web design’ then the landing page should be web-focused and nothing else. These small tips will help boost traffic numbers and you will be able to monitor the effects of this through your analytics. If things do not improve then look at adjusting your ads and keywords even further. It’s basically trial and error till you get it right.
5. Use Google Match Phrases
Use a combination of matches as this is a great way to get more bang for your buck. Google offers 3 options:
- exact match which would be ‘web design’
- broad match which would have a phrase with any combination of the words ‘web design’ in any order – e.g ‘cool web companies that offer design’
- phrase match which would have any phrase with the words web design e.g ‘funky web design’
PPC campaigns are a great way to drive more business and traffic to your website. Be careful about your approach to this as it can become very expensive if you are not fully on top of the whole process.
It’s a good idea to speak with someone who knows PPC inside out and get them to perhaps manage the campaign for you. They will obviously charge you a fee for this and it’s generally around the 10% mark but it’s better than blowing your entire budget on wasted clicks.