PPC or Pay-per-click are one of many online advertising options available to businesses. As the name suggests, an advertiser pays a small fee for the ad each time a potential customer clicks on the ad. Search network, display network, search networks with display opt-in, and product listing ads are the four kinds of PPC ads. Search networks are the most popular medium for PPC ads. Some advertisers prefer adopting a PPC campaign as it yields a faster result than the organic method. According to a report by Hannipen Marketing in 2019, 75% of the marketers found PPC beneficial for their business. A PPC ad campaign can be successful if they follow a logical and organised structure, intelligent keyword combinations, and continuous management. Several elements need to come together for a PPC ad campaign to be successful. The following are the Top 5.
Keywords
Anyone stepping into the foray of digital marketing should already be aware of the importance of Keywords. It is the backbone of any digital marketing campaign because it is what marketers use to find the right audience through their search queries. They must be relevant, exhaustive and expansive. They can be very specific, exactly matching the word or phrase that consumers search, or they could provide leeway for irregularities or variations like misspellings or comments in the wrong order. The choice is up to the advertiser. However, it is crucial to determine the keywords that are right for you.
Conversely, identifying negative keywords can help to avoid irrelevant traffic. It will not trigger the ad when the negative keyword is entered in the query. Keywords can be further categorised into ad groups that contain variations of the keywords. Managing your keywords by either removing or adding keywords of value is essential for a successful PPC Ad Campaign.
If you are new to the concept of keywords, read through our Beginner’s Guide to Keyword Research.
Budgets and Bids
For a marketer or advertiser to place an ad on a search engine result page (SERP), they need to bid for ad space. Online businesses have to bid on keywords or keyword groups to secure ad space for terms related to their business. Similar to keywords, target audiences are also bid upon based on relevance. Google Adwords are the most commonly used bid management system for PPC advertising. However, there are other more robust automated bid management solutions that may come at a cost.
Before making a bid, companies should decide on their budget. A budget is helpful to maintain a limit on the amount spent per day. It is essential to determine the maximum cost-per-click bid. The maximum cost-per-click bid is the most a company is willing to pay per click on an ad. Generally, a higher bid helps show your ad in better ad spaces on the result page, but it may cost more. Thus, setting your budget and intelligently managing your bids can impact the traffic the ad receives, leading to conversions.
Ad Rank
Ad Rank is your ad’s position on the SERPs when a potential customer searches for a particular keyword or phrase. The term ‘position’ refers to the order of the ad in the bidding auction compared to other ads. Few factors determine ad rank – the maximum cost-per-click bid, the quality score, and impactful ad extension and formatting. Sometimes a higher bid is required for a higher position, but it does not always depend on the highest bid. Ensuring that each of those factors is fulfilled can help you increase ad position without breaking the bank.
Quality score consists of three components. They are ad relevance, landing page relevance, and expected click-through rate. Each part is given a score of below average, average, or above average by Google. Advertisers can improve the score by ensuring that the ad is relevant or that keywords in the ad are matched correctly with the search query. Similarly, the landing page must be relevant. The landing page should contain the keyword or keyword groups seamlessly placed within the context of the landing page’s content. Ad extensions are the extras space that google offers to give more information to customers. The bottom line is for a good ad rank, make sure they are specific and relevant.
Want to increase your ad rank? Check out this blog on How to Create an Effective Landing Page for Lead Generation.
Ad Text Optimization
The next element is the content of the ads. The ads must be not only creative and appealing but also correctly structured. For the ads to be optimised in the best possible way for a return in investment, the ad must contain targeted keywords, the benefits that the customer will gain, and a call to action. There are a few ways advertisers can create copy that will appeal to customers. The ads must display their value to the customer by highlighting the customer’s benefit from clicking the ad and highlighting certain relevant features of the product or services on offer. The ad can also be addressing a problem that the customer is trying to solve, or it can focus on the solution. It can feature reviews or testimonials, or any ranking the company may hold. Another method for ensuring only relevant customers click on your ad is by using words that will immediately turn away those looking for something else. For example, using the word luxury for a product or service may dissuade those for whom affordability is an important criterion.
Conversion Tracking
We are living in an age of metrics and evaluation. Data analytics is a trending topic in the digital marketing sphere. We want to know that our efforts are fruitful and be able to study customer engagement. If you have placed an ad on Google Ads, you will want to know how effective the ad is for converting potential customers to actual customers. You may wish to determine website purchases, website actions, newsletter sign-up and much more. Conversion tracking is beneficial to advertisers to determine meaningful action by customers.
What does one do to avoid potential customers leave a webpage without taking a desirable action? Here are 7 Tips to Reduce Bounce Rate.
Head on over to Bunjy for all your digital marketing needs.