Every business owner has countless options when it comes to marketing and promoting their brand. Many of those options cost you little more than the time such as SEO or content marketing but they are still affordable if outsourced from the right service provider. Despite being affordable, more than 70% of businesses (as per a survey held in 2013) preferred to cast their marketing budget towards PPC/paid ad campaigns.
Well! It is not that surprising if you consider the 64.6% of clicks on Google ads while people are buying something online. Another driving force of PPC is the instant results that you can get from it. According to leading digital marketers, a strategically crafted PPC campaign provides you with traffic and leads right after it starts running.
However, these immediate returns and results can be alluring if you are waiting for the last many months to gain traction through your organic SEO tactics. But folks! A PPC campaign is quite complex and needs careful planning. Around 34% of marketers think that paid ads are one of the most effective tactics but it is quite difficult to utilize at the same time.
See! This is something where your luck won’t help you at all! So, it is good to read out the guide to start your PPC campaign on a successful note. Let us get started!
Just keep in mind is that every successful PPC campaign begins with thorough research, particularly CUSTOMER RESEARCH. Before launching your campaign, you should know what your customers are looking for, what exactly they want, and how they are searching for it.
Although you can load up a PPC campaign with whatever keywords or phrases you want and pull the trigger! But it will be nothing but a bust if your customers are not using those keywords or phrases to find anything. Even worse, you could wind up spending a hefty amount with zero to little conversions if you are targeting the wrong keywords.
To kick-start brainstorming keywords, you can begin with whatever data you have i.e. detailed buyer personas. The only thing you must keep in mind is that the initial seed-list should have everything your customers would use for your products. These are the targeted keywords that you would want your PPC to appear under while your customers entering them as a search query.
These must include branded keywords. We are saying this because these keywords have constantly been shown higher conversion rates. Simply put, no idea or thought is bad if it is relevant to your business.
Once you have a seeded list, now it is time to utilize data to authenticate the keywords chosen to know where the treasure is buried. For this, you can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. It is an outstanding tool as it provides you with options for validating the keywords you have selected by showing the search volume and trends, Cost-Per-Click (CPC), and other competitive data. You can also get the most appropriate keyword suggestions to expand the seed list effectively.
While checking these details, it is important to be double sure to set your location i.e. global, by country or state, region, etc. along with the date. It is the quickest way to authenticate all your keywords and know the average search volume (monthly), the suggested bid, and the competition for that particular keyword.
When it comes to the bid or cost, it is believed that keywords with high search volume and competition tend to have more CPC that the lower ones. But, do not dumb any keyword from your list even if the data is not up to the mark. You can either cherry-pick or load the entire list and search for new yet relevant keywords side-by-side by using those ‘phrases’. It is a fact that some keywords may show you poor search volume, but suggestions with favorable results can be collected from Google.
Once you get the data of the targeted keywords, you must organize them into MORE targeted groups that are related to each other. The relevant and tighter your groups are, the easier it will become to measure the keywords’ performance, tweak the targeted groups, and make more specific and more relevant ads for every group.
But yes, while grouping keywords, remember how search intent changes from specific long-tail terms to broad keywords. Understand this with the following example – the commercial electric vehicle will have more purchase intent than the broad term such as a vehicle. So, consider this fact while arranging your keywords.
We all start acting abnormally when there is a word NEGATIVE specifically in business. But guys! It is crucial while putting your PPC ads together. Although a keyword may look appealing based on CPC, search volume, and competition, it may not be relevant.
Similarly, some keywords might have different user intent and can attract customers to click on it but they will prove to be nothing but immediate bounce and no conversion. It could also cause impressions with no clicks. From the digital marketing viewpoint, both can weaken the overall quality score of your PPC campaign and can negatively affect its placement and CPC.
Now, the question is how to prevent this condition? For this, you can flag keywords as NEGATIVE KEYWORDS that might be attracting the wrong audience. This small yet simple practice will help you keep your PPC ad from displaying if any of those negative keywords are used by your audience.
While researching your keywords, try to answer the following by using the data available:
Answering these questions will help you strip the keywords down significantly but there are still some questions to ask – CAN I AFFORD TO RUN A CAMPAIGN ON THIS KEYWORD? When average CPC varies by sector, other factors can considerably increase CPC. So, it is important to find out what you can truly afford. But this question has to be answered before finalizing the list. It is simple math but a necessary one. Just determine the cost for any given keyword to control overspending on marketing.
You can determine and set the cost based on the conversion rates, the amount of profit, and estimated profit margins. It is okay if you are not sure about it as a professional PPC management company can help you with this. Or you can simply follow the formula mentioned here:
Maximum CPC = (profit per customer) x (1 – profit margin) x (website conversion rate)
Understand this formula with the example given below:
Assume! Your profit from an average customer is Rs. 400, and out of every 1,000 visits you are only able to convert 2% of people i.e. 20. With an expected profit margin of 20%, you can calculate the
CPC: Maximum CPC = Rs. 400 x (1 – 0.20) x 2% = Rs. 6.40
To make your campaigns profitable and effective, you just need to improve the conversion rates from your average customers.
Still not aware of whom your competitors are and what they are doing? You must tighten your shoelaces and know your competitors. Just analyze their ongoing PPC campaigns to learn from their strategies and mistakes. You can use different online tools like Google AdWords to read the data.
For this, sign in your account and navigate to the ‘Auction Insights Report’ from the campaign’s dashboard. When you run the reports, just pay attention to the impression share. It is a fact that you might have a lot of competition for the same keywords but chances are quite higher than you can disregard a ‘fair share’ by factoring in the impressions share.
Besides, when you pinpoint your competitors, it is time to identify which keywords they are getting profit from. A good PPC agency can help you read your competitors well and plan accordingly.
Content is king. And when you have the right set of keywords, just focus on writing some killer ad copies. The time when you start writing impressive copies, everything changes! You can even throw the older piece but it should closely be focused on your targeted audience who are more likely to click and convert. Just put yourself in your customers’ shoes to understand what exactly they want. Furthermore, you have got limited space for the ad copy; therefore it is more than important to make sure it is compelling and interesting enough.
Once your PPC campaign is built and you are focusing on conversions, the work does not end there. With a live campaign, you will need to continuously monitor the performance of all ad groups and ad variations to accumulate the data. Based on the data collected, you can further adjust keyword bidding, add new yet relevant keywords, test new ad copies, delete poorly performing keywords and ads, etc. So follow these essential points if you truly want to jump-start your PPC campaign on a successful note.
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