Pay-per-click advertising is one of the most effective forms of advertising available to businesses, reaching 90 percent of internet users.
It is a marketing phenomenon that has long outgrown its humble beginnings, now bringing in a massive $135 billion in revenue for Google in 2019.
The PPC ads industry is clearly one that is thriving. This is why there’s nothing more disheartening than investing in a PPC marketing campaign only for it to flop.
But here’s the thing: running a successful Google Ads campaign requires more than just money.
Like any other good marketing effort, it needs careful thought. Thorough planning will help you make the most out of a pay-per-click ads campaign: to succeed in your venture into this booming industry, you need to know how it works.
Every ambitious business wants to get the best return on investment out of their advertising. With PPC ads, you can get just that.
This article will explain how.
Figure Out How Google Ads Works
Setting up a pay-per-click ads campaign is a huge monetary commitment – so it needs to be done right.
Before you set your heart on using PPC ads, it’s important to know how they function so you can decide if they’re really what’s best for your business. Here are the pros of a Google Ads campaign:
- It’s targeted. PPC marketing will connect you directly with those most likely to be interested in your product or service.
- Success is measurable. You can track how many times people are clicking on your ads.
- Results can be fast. Google Ads campaigns have a huge reach!
- Generates sales. When used properly, clicks from PPC ads often turn into new customers for your business.
Whilst these benefits might make signing up for PPC marketing seem like a no-brainer, there is more to consider. Pay-per-click campaigns are different from SEO marketing – where SEO allows a business to capitalize on organic web traffic, PPC ads offer a way to draw potential customers away from your competitors and to your company through keenly focused advertising.
The differences between the two mean that the optimal use of PPC ads is in any campaign that aims to generate sales.
Brand awareness, though important, is perhaps better generated through other marketing techniques. This is because it is difficult to track in a Google Ads campaign, and paying for the clicks you receive is not very cost-effective when those clicks don’t turn into sales.
With this knowledge about how best to use Google Ads, you’re ready to start building a successful PPC marketing campaign.
Know Your Audience
It is the potential customers who lie at the very heart of all good marketing.
Before you start forking out cash for PPC ads that are not optimized for those most likely to invest in your business, you need to do some research. This will allow you to tailor your ads far more successfully.
Who is your audience? What sites do they browse most often? Answering questions like these will show you exactly who your ads should be designed for.
Once you know the sites that are popular with your audience, you can analyze the style, voice, and language used in the things that your potential customers are reading. Detailed knowledge like this will enable you to develop ads that really appeal to them.
Know Your Competition
Just as you know your audience, you must also know your competitors. Take some time to analyze their advertising. Note what it is they’re doing well so that you can emulate it in your own campaign.
Your brand will benefit from knowing not only what it is that your competitors are doing well, but where they are falling short. It might sound brutal, but we all know the truth:
If you know what their campaign is missing, you can make sure to include it in your own.
If You’re Already Using Ads, Do an Audit
You might be here because your current PPC ads aren’t doing as well as you’d hoped. If this is the case, it’s time to do a deep dive into the campaign and see how you can apply these tips.
Consolidate Your Goal
If there’s one thing that will set your Google Ads campaign up to fail, it’s this:
Trying to make it do too much.
Though it might be tempting to try and capitalize on your investment by making it pull extra weight, this will only stretch your marketing too thin – rather than getting to the heart of what certain people want and encouraging them to give you their custom, it won’t reach anybody at all.
The optimal way to use pay-per-click ads involves pinpointing a specific goal. If you have several things you want to achieve through PPC ads, consider running separate campaigns for each of them.
Each pay-per-click ad needs to be led by a sharply focused goal that you should set at the start of the process and keep in mind throughout.
To get that top spot, decide what you’re trying to do right now and build your ads around that. It is this that will allow you to make the most of the way PPC ads work.
Find Those Magic Words
Now that you know exactly what you’re trying to do, and who for, you can get to work on finding the perfect keywords.
Keywords are those that you must include in your ads to have them show up when people search for certain things. They are vital to the success of your PPC marketing campaign – if your keywords are too vague, your ads won’t show up for anyone. If they are too obscure, you’ll face the same problem.
To find the keywords that will work the best for what you are marketing, simply figure out the overlap between what you offer and what people search for. There are online tools that can help with this.
When you know which keywords to put into your ads, you’re ready to start turning all of your research into something that your potential customers won’t be able to resist.
Write and Design Your PPC Ads
Now it’s time to get creative.
You’ve got all of the information you need to come up with something that will catch the eyes of those who are most likely to want what you’re providing. So the next step in creating your campaign is to write the copy and design the ads.
Write Something Strong
Remember: you only have a small amount of space to make a huge impact.
Whatever you write, optimize it with these tips:
- Leverage keywords. Put the right ones in, and your ad will show on searches.
- Mirror the search terms. If you are as specific as the user, they will trust that you have what they want. Someone searching for ‘women’s hi-top shoes’ will click the link offering that over the one advertising just ‘women’s shoes’.
- Be honest. There’s no point in writing things in the ad to get clicks if it’s not what you’re actually providing.
There’s plenty more guidance available on how to write your ads, and with a little time and attention, you’ll find exactly what works for you.
Consider A Testing System
When you’re making your PPC ads, it’s worth making a few different versions of the copy that have minor differences in language and phrasing.
Customers work in mysterious ways. Small things can often make a huge difference when it comes to what catches people’s attention and gets them to click on a link.
At the start of your campaign, you can split your budget to try out the different versions of the ads. Whichever works best at this stage is the one you should continue investing in going forward.
Perfect Your Landing Page
Everything you’ve done up to now should generate plenty of clicks on your ads. But there’s still something you need to get right to make your PPC ads worth investing in.
Many businesses who use Google Ads can’t understand why their sales don’t increase even when their website traffic does. Often it is because the page that they are linking to is their homepage.
This is no good for the customer, and no good for your business.
When users are searching for something online, they are looking for an easy way to access the thing they want. They aren’t hoping to do more work when they get to your site.
Clicks that lead to your homepage are a waste of time for the user and a waste of money for you.
So what can you do instead to turn those clicks into sales and make the user happy?
It’s easy. Perfect your landing page.
Users are looking for something that:
- Directly addresses their query. Send them straight to the webpage for the thing they are searching for.
- Is easy to navigate. Give them a clear path: ad, webpage, purchase.
- Looks trustworthy. Don’t send them to a cluttered page that is questionably designed.
There are lots of ways to refine your landing page that will help convert clicks into sales. Make sure you take the time to work on it, and you can be confident that your PPC marketing will have the desired effect.
Monitor Your Google Ads Campaign
Here you are: your ads have gone live and you’re starting to notice them do their job.
All of the work you’ve put in up to this point has stood you in good stead to have a successful experience with using PPC marketing for your business. You might be wondering what else there is that you need to do.
Isn’t my work here done? Shouldn’t the ads do the rest?
The answer is yes – and no.
Your advertising campaign is underway and should already be generating some positive outcomes for your business. As it progresses, you should check whether you’re getting the return on investment that you want by doing the following:
- Take the amount that you are paying per click.
- Multiply it by the proportion of clicks that are turning into sales.
- Compare your result to your desired profit model.
If you’re happy with the outcome, then all is going well. If not, check back through the key stages of building the campaign and figure out how to increase your ROI.
Make Sure You Keep Testing
The market is constantly changing. To keep your Google Ads campaign working at its best, you have to keep updating it in accordance with what your audience wants.
Small adjustments to the copy can make all the difference in keeping up with the latest search trends. Tailoring your landing page to keep it enticing to your potential customers will ensure your conversion rate remains consistent.
Giving the ads your attention even once they’ve launched will make all the difference.
By monitoring the effectiveness of your pay-per-click ads as the campaign progresses, you can make sure you keep getting the best results that PPC marketing has to offer.
The 350 companies who took part in the launch of Google’s PPC ads system in 2000 saw the birth of what is now one of the most wide-reaching advertising tools in existence.
Having read this article, you can now begin to take real advantage of PPC marketing.
Reap The Rewards
The process of optimizing your PPC ads might seem daunting, but there’s plenty of help to be found. The marketing experts at Blissbranding Agency can help you run a pay-per-click campaign that will be the envy of all your competitors.
In a constantly expanding digital world, one thing is for sure: if you do PPC marketing well, it could be one of the best things you ever do for your business.
You know what to do. Follow the advice in this article and get in contact with the experts for a free consultation.