Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising is among the most widely used marketing strategies today, with at least 65% of medium to small-sized businesses investing in PPC campaigns. It works by businesses placing ads that feature text, images, or video across the web to promote their company in search results, websites, or social media platforms.
This online marketing approach is practical as businesses use it for lead generation, boosting online sales, increasing website traffic, and creating brand awareness. According to statistics from market experts, PPC ads have a 200% ROI and generate twice as much traffic as organic search. Additionally, they can increase brand awareness by up to 80%.
Although using PPC can be a powerful marketing method, coming up with a strategy that brings the results you expect can be challenging and requires a well-laid-out approach. Therefore, this article will look at optimizing your PPC ads to increase effectiveness and it will highlight the common mistakes you should avoid.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
How big is the PPC advertising market?
How to optimize your PPC strategy
Mistakes to avoid in your PPC strategy
Conclusion
How big is the PPC advertising market?
In 2024, ad spending on paid search advertising is set to reach US$ 306.7 billion, and this figure is projected to reach US$ 417.4 billion by 2028, growing at an annual growth rate of 8.01%.
Players in the PPC market include search engines like Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, and Google. However, Google boasts the largest market share at 92%. Google also revealed that for every US$ 1 business spends on Google Ads, they make an average of US $2.
To maximize this potential, having your PPC game right is inevitable. So let’s take a look at the best practices that can help optimize your PPC strategy to boost conversions.
How to optimize your PPC strategy
You should consider various factors to make your PPC campaigns effective, including PPC landing page optimization, ad spend, and keyword organization. Here are some of the most effective ways to improve your PPC ads.
1. Choose the most effective keywords
A successful pay-per-click strategy involves selecting the right keywords, whereby you must ensure that you are bidding on the most relevant keywords for your business. Wordstream says at least 64.6% of clicks on Google Ads come from searches with high commercial intent.
A good idea to help you with keyword research and choosing the best options is to utilize the Google AdWords Keyword Planner.
However, note that your competitors will likely use the exact keywords. In this case, use keywords with purchase intent and avoid general keywords that may not bring in quality leads.
Add specificity to what customers search for and use descriptive keywords, which include the brand name, product type, and appropriate words such as “guaranteed,” “reliable,” or “affordable.”
2. Provide value first
When launching a PPC campaign, you must focus on attracting quality leads. How do you do this? Start by providing a great first experience to your target audience.
This way, converting visitors into leads interested in your company or the products you provide becomes easy, and they eventually become paying customers.
The use of customer tracking measures plays a vital role here. To track your customers, the metrics you should measure include:
- Purchase history: Your sales data contains valuable insights about your customers to help you determine the kind of products, services, and promotions you should include in your advertising campaigns.
- Customer contact information: Tracking customer information helps you learn about their location or age to tailor your adverts to target them specifically.
- Sales funnel: You need to track customers passing through your sales funnel to learn where they are in the sales process. Therefore, it allows you to formulate an ad campaign that results in more conversions.
- Traffic channels: Measuring your traffic channels is also essential to help you know where your customers are coming from.
- Downloads: Downloadable materials like guides are great lead magnets. You can use them to learn about the interests of your leads. This way, you can make ads based on what your leads want.
Tracking these elements allows you to customize your ads based on their unique goals and desires, adding value to the users across your content.
3. Use long tail keywords
Most people use short-tail keywords in their ad campaigns as they usually cover broad topics. Examples of short tail keywords include “how to lose weight” or “best online t-shirt store.”
However, this strategy may not be the right approach. These keywords target large audiences and more clicks, but your campaign may fail to reach your ideal audience.
An ideal long-tail keyword should have about five or more words. One example is “bikini set for plus size women.”
Although this keyword example may not get as many clicks as a short-tail keyword, it is specific, and people who click on this ad will likely convert because it provides a solution to a particular need.
Users looking for your solution are more likely to find and pay close attention to long-tail keywords. Therefore, choose long-tail keywords that work well with your product or service for optimal outcomes.
4. Target prospective and returning customers
When someone first clicks on your advertisement, there is a higher chance that they will want to learn more about the goods or services you are promoting, which marks the beginning of the marketing journey. The focus of your ad is to draw in potential buyers who need to see value in your company before they convert.
People farther along in the customer journey need a different strategy because they know what your business offers and have a buying intent. In this case, you should retarget these prospects using keywords that suit them.
For example, if you are selling cashmere coats, use terms such as “Buy cashmere coat at 30% off” instead of a generic term such as “cashmere coat for sale.”
Retargeting is essential because prospective customers require multiple touchpoints with a business before making a purchase decision.
5. Have a call to action (CTA)
Call to action is a crucial aspect of PPC optimization. As the ad copy provides value to the customer, the role of the CTA is to direct the customer to what step to take next.
Once potential customers receive the value they expect from the ad text, you should tell them what they need to do to achieve the advantages you have outlined in the body of the advertisement.
For example, the call to action should direct clients to visit your website, purchase a product, join your email list, or receive a newsletter. To learn more about calls to action for ecommerce, click here.
6. Focus on quality instead of quantity
You have to ensure potential buyers see high-quality content on your website or landing page after they click on your PPC advertisement. Now that you have paid for the click, it’s time to ensure you get the most out of your PPC expenses.
Providing persuasively cohesive content designed to convert readers into customers is vital. Consider why prospects come to your website first and how you can offer them value and additional value after engaging with your business.
7. Consider geotargeting
Geotargeting can play a role in ensuring your PPC strategy is successful because audiences vary geographically and have distinct preferences.
With geotargeting, you may run separate campaigns in different places and tailor your marketing efforts to meet your target different users’ needs and interests.
8. Optimize your PPC campaign for mobile
The content on desktop and mobile devices differs significantly from one another. Because more and more people are accessing the internet through mobile devices, you must design responsive PPC ads suited for the mobile user experience.
There are 5.3 billion mobile device subscribers worldwide, and 400 million more are anticipated by 2025, according to the GSMA’s mobile economy study.
Because of its vast audience, mobile device marketing is crucial, and hence, there is a need to put a lot of effort into creating content that works and converts well on mobile devices.
9. Concentrate on ad groups
Ad groups are essential in PPC marketing; relevance is crucial to get an ad group to achieve a higher Quality Score. Therefore, you should have a specific goal for each ad group you utilize.
When you want more clicks and conversions from your keywords, building unique ad groups is considerably more effective than targeting everyone with the same ad.
Ad groups work best when the target audience is tiny, mainly when a small portion of online shoppers believe that the adverts on a website are only relevant to them.
You can use segmentation to set your ad groups apart by location, demographics, or customer journey placement. For instance, if you sell laptops, a buyer looking for a gaming laptop will have different needs in contrast to someone looking for a student laptop.
Mistakes to avoid in your PPC strategy
1. Avoid too much focus on traffic generation
Although pay-per-click advertising campaigns often increase web traffic, this should not be your only goal.
Using overly generic keywords will generate many visitors to your site. Still, most of them may not genuinely be interested in your business or the products or services you provide.
Instead, each of your PPC campaigns should have SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals) that directly benefit your business. For example, if you are new to PPC, the goal should be generating high-quality leads.
However, if your website attracts prospects but fails to make a purchase or provide their information, improving the conversion rate using PPC tools should be your goal.
If visitors come to your website but only spend a small amount of money, your PPC ad strategy should aim at increasing your customer’s expenditures.
2. Don’t direct audiences to a poorly designed or laggy site
Even with the most potent PPC advertisements, visitors will leave your site or landing page if they find it clumsy, slow, or unclear.
Clarity, speed, and website design are all crucial. As a result, ensure the entire landing page and website are quick to load, have user-friendly navigation, and have well-written copy with a detailed description of your products or services. These elements make a good impression on customers and make it easy for them to take specific actions.
3. Don’t forget to include a CTA
Once people click on your ad and arrive on your landing page, you need to tell them what action they should take. Or else they will look around and take their business elsewhere. Incorporating a call-to-action button is what you need to do to clarify what action they should take once they arrive on your site.
For instance, you may want them to join your email list. If so, place a simple subscription form above the fold so people can quickly notice it. In addition, use graphics and bold colors to make it easy for them to spot.
Give them an incentive to join and tell them what they anticipate receiving once they click that submit or subscribe button. If you want them to order from your online store, add your most popular product on the home page and inform them of any special offers.
4. Don’t put too many links on your landing page
Preferably, you’ll send your PPC visitors to a landing page rather than your primary website. Your landing page’s purpose is to drive visitors through the sales funnel, while your website is too general, and adding too many links could distract your users.
Instead, pay attention to telling them what action they need to take.
You want to ensure that the large portion of visitors that click on your ads will convert, as a focused landing page is a gateway to achieving your conversion goals.
To make your landing pages more effective in generating leads, create multiple ones with specific PPC campaigns and targeting strategies.
5. Don’t forget to test and track KPIs
Testing all campaign elements, including the ad’s headline, copy, and design, is essential. This is done through A or B testing, which will help you see which elements work and tweak those not performing well. Make this strategy an ongoing part of your process.
Also, use key performance indicators, like click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per click, to determine your campaigns’ effectiveness. You can also decide what KPIs are important and make business decisions based on them.
For example, if your click-through rate is high but the conversion rate is low, you can tailor your PPC ads to focus on the low-performing indicators.
Conclusion
When done right, PPC advertising can be an effective strategy. However, it takes trial and error to produce the best results. The expert tips in this guide can help you improve your PPC strategy and avoid common mistakes that can save your advertising budget.
With time and effort, your PPC efforts will pay off in the long run. And finally, don’t forget to follow Alibaba.com Reads to stay updated with the latest developments in the world of ecommerce.
