The hardest part about PPC, at least for beginners, is getting started. Once you know the basics of constructing your campaigns and setting bids, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds if you don’t have a strategy. The best way to combat this is by creating a clear plan with specific goals before putting any budget behind your ads. If you do that right from the start, you’ll ensure that every dollar spent goes towards achieving those goals rather than just testing out new strategies on an ad-hoc basis without any real thought behind them. In this post, we’ll address some ways you can optimize your PPC campaigns, so they deliver maximum ROI without wasting money or resources on ineffective tactics like broad match keywords or untargeted landing pages
People don’t search for products; they search for solutions
- People don’t search for products; they search for solutions.
- People don’t search for information to help them decide; they search for ideas and inspiration.
- People don’t search for answers to questions; they search for information to help them solve problems.
Use negative keywords
Negative keywords are words that are not relevant to your business. They can help you avoid spending money on irrelevant searches, leading to a higher ROI and quality score.
To use negative keywords, go to the “Negative Keywords” tab in your AdWords account and add terms that are not related to what you’re selling. For example:
- Do not include broad or generic terms like “contact lens” or “shoes.” These will be too broad for your ads because they won’t get as specific as you want them to be.
- Don’t use negative keywords if they don’t fit with the audience already established by other terms in the ad group. The goal is always to have high-performing ads at all times!
Start by optimizing your landing pages.
Landing pages are the most important part of your PPC campaign. You should have a landing page for each ad group and a separate landing page for each keyword phrase relevant to your business.
Your landing pages should be optimized around the conversion goals of your business. You could be trying to get conversions or engagement with social media posts, phone calls or form submissions, email subscriptions, or any other type of conversion.
Broaden and narrow your keyword targeting
Broaden and narrow your keyword targeting.
Broad keywords help you reach a wide audience but don’t give you much control over who sees your ads. For example, using “car insurance” will attract people interested in buying or researching car insurance and those who want to learn more about it. Using “buy car insurance” will attract only people actively looking for information on how to buy car insurance.
Narrow keywords can be used if you know what kind of customer you want to attract with your campaign; for example, if you know that all of the sales leads from one of your ad groups come from searches using the word “bluebook” then adding this word as a negative keyword prevents those search results from being shown again when someone searches for new cars or services like auto repair shops in their area that offer complimentary estimates on repairs so they can get an idea whether they should keep their current vehicle or not (and why).
Don’t be afraid to experiment with ad copy and calls to action
Once you have a solid understanding of your target audience and their type of person, it’s time to start testing. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ad copy and calls to action to find the best combination of words to get your desired results. The key is using language relevant to the customer base you are targeting and a call-to-action (CTA) that will get people interested enough to click on your ad.
It should go without saying, but make sure all copy is clear and concise; avoid using jargon or long sentences that can confuse potential customers with too much information at once – keep it simple! Finally, double-check for grammatical errors; this is especially important if you plan on hiring writers outside your team because spelling mistakes often result in lower CTRs (click-through rates).
Split test strategies and tactics
Split testing is one of the most effective ways to improve your PPC campaigns. If you’re not using it, it’s time to start!
Split testing strategies and tactics are important because they allow you to test different versions of an ad or campaign to see what works best. For example, if you wanted to test two headlines for a click-through rate (CTR), one headline might read “Great Deals on Shoes!” while the other reads “Wear These Shoes in Style!” Both are great headlines, but maybe one performs better than the other in terms of clicks per impression (CPI) or cost per click (CPC). You can then use that information as a guide when creating future ads using those same headlines.
These tips will help you make the most out of your PPC budget
If you’re using PPC as part of your marketing strategy, chances are that you have a set budget for the campaign. That’s why making the most out of every dollar you spend on Google Ads is important. Here are some tips that will help you do just that:
- Use negative keywords. While they may seem like an unnecessary step, negative keywords can be a huge help when optimizing your campaigns and ads. For example, if an ad is running for the term “women’s clothing” but there are no relevant products in the account, adding negative terms like “men” or “kids” will prevent irrelevant clicks from appearing on your ads—and ultimately wasting money on clicks that don’t convert into sales.
- Optimize landing pages before proceeding with keyword targeting, broadening, and narrowing strategies. Landing page optimization starts before brainstorming ideas for new campaign concepts; it involves testing out different messages based on industry research and audience insights (if available). Each message should be aligned with its corresponding conversion goal(s) before being applied to landing pages across different devices such as phones vs. tablets vs. desktops, etcetera…
Conclusion
PPC is a great way to advertise your business and reach potential customers. But it can also be overwhelming if you have no experience or don’t know where to start. Following these tips, we hope they will help make PPC less intimidating for you. And remember: the best way to succeed in PPC is by keeping an open mind!
