Whether you have a new or established business on the internet, PPC marketing can help you drive traffic and increase sales. That`s because it ranks businesses depending on how you place your bids.
However, if you are not skilled, you can end up creating marketing campaigns that don`t rank, making you lose money.
To succeed in PPC marketing, you must know how to align your ad campaigns with the audience's intent and tone of voice and use persuasive calls to action.
Wonder how you can do that? This content will help you out.
What PPC Marketing Mean
PPC marketing is a form of online advertisement that involves paying search engines to rank your business in relevant search queries and drive your desired actions.
You pay the search engines for the actions you want to be taken on your ads, which include
- Making sales
- Getting Leads
- Driving website traffic
Benefits of PPC Marketing
It takes a long for a website to organically appear on the search engine results page through organic SEO. Using PPC helps you get to the top pages fast, depending on the keywords you bid on your ads.
Since PPC marketing produces fast results, it helps you know what`s working and what`s not so you can make adjustments and save time and money.
It also allows targeting the clients that have a high chance to convert.
That`s because you can specify your bids using keywords that target commercial or transactional search intent and focus on particular demographics and audience persona.
You can also set up remarketing campaigns which can entice more people who interacted and showed interest in your ads but didn`t purchase and convince them to make purchases.
Besides, search engines often update their algorithm guidelines to hinder websites from using unethical tricks to rank. These rules affect organic SEO marketing. What matters in PPC marketing is keyword relevance, good landing page user experience, and ad budget.
Main Terms Used in PPC
 |
| Image by PICHA Stock: Pexels |
There is specific jargon used in PPC marketing. Understanding it helps in creating campaigns that align with your audience`s intent and convert them.
These terms are
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This involves practices that help display websites on the top pages of search engine results.
Search engine marketing encompasses both search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing methods.
The difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO focuses only on practices taken to raise a site`s rank on organic search results.
Meanwhile, SEM entails increasing businesses` visibility by using both organic SEO practices and paid promotions.
Check this content and learn more about SEO marketing, and here is the one that covers SEM marketing in detail.
Cost Per Click
This is a short form for cost-per-click. It implies the amount advertisers pay for each click on their ads.
It`s a bid auction that determines where your ad will be displayed. The higher you pay, the higher your ad will be displayed.
Ad Rank
This refers to how high your ad will be displayed on a results page compared to others, or whether it should be displayed at all.
Every time somebody searches, your ad rank ability to be displayed is calculated according to its relevance with the context of the search and competition in an auction with other ads.
Your bid auction and your ad relevance to search queries determine the quality of your ad every time somebody searches.
Ad Quality Score
This refers to how relevant and useful your ad is to the searchers` intent. It is calculated based on the following elements:
Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
This implies the likelihood of the audience clicking on your ads.
You can increase your ads' click-through rate by creating a copy that shows the audience how your ads can help them solve their problems.
For instance, if you sell an affiliate marketing course, your ad copy should show what results people can get by taking your course. So, the copy can be, “Here is how this 18-year homeless boy went from earning $0 to $1000 monthly, doing affiliate marketing.”
You will entice people to click on the ad and learn how the person did it. When they click, they will be directed to your website to read the content connected to the ad, where you can entice them to buy the course.
Relevance
This refers to how your ad matches the users` search intent.
For your ad to align with your target audience, you need to know the keywords they use when searching for content related to yours.
That will enable you to know the problems you should solve and appeal to potential clients.
That`s possible by doing keyword research, which entails wearing your audience`s shoes and brainstorming the keywords they use when searching for relevant content.
If, for example, you sell freelance writing courses, the keywords can be
- SEO freelance writing course
- SaaS marketing freelance writing course
- Make $2000 doing freelance writing
Then put the keywords in keyword research tools to see their volume and difficulty, so you can pick the ones with a probability to enable your ads to rank.
Here is an in-depth resource on how to conduct keyword research that appears on the relevant search results and drives conversions.
Landing Page
This is a web page to which people are directed after clicking on an ad.
You can use a section of your website as a landing page, or build a stand-alone landing page.
For your landing page to be effective, use relevant, attractive colors and readable copy that convinces people to perform your call to action.
Moreover, use short sentences and small paragraphs so people can easily understand your landing page copy.
For instance, if you sell fruit juice, you can create a landing page with bright colors (green, orange, yellow, etc.). Then, use a language that aligns with your audience`s persona, which in the case of fruit juice, you can use casual language.
Besides, create visible and persuasive calls to action that show the benefits people can get from your offer, and you`ll easily drive traffic.
See this content on how to create persuasive landing pages and drive traffic to your business.
Maximum CPC Bids
This implies the highest amount of money you bid for clicks on your ads. Your ad can`t be charged more than the money you bid. For instance, if you set a maximum of $3, your ad won`t be charged more than that.
There are two types of maximum CPC bidding, which are automatic and manual bidding.
With automatic bidding, you can set a daily budget and the search engines will adjust your maximum amount so the ads get many clicks.
In manual bidding, the search engines don`t control your bids. You set the maximum you want for your entire ad or set various bid amounts for particular keywords.
Cost Per Mile (CPM)
Also called cost per thousand, CPM refers to the amount paid per one thousand views or impressions an ad gets.
This is commonly used on ads placed on web pages or social media pages.
In these types of ads, you will pay for every 1000 impressions or views your ad gets.
Ad Campaign
Ad campaign refers to the message you want to spread to the audience.
If you sell heavy commercial cars, your campaign can be “Heavy commercial car for sale”. It should let people know how good your cars are and why they should buy from you.
In this case, your target audience can be people who sell or carry heavy goods. Therefore, you should know the location where they conduct their business and if your cars can stand the types of roads they use.
That will help you create campaigns that resonate with your clients and drive sales.
Ad Group
This refers to an ad that contains two or more related ads. The importance of ad groups is to separate ads and target specific audience persona.
For example, if you have a car industry selling a wide variety of cars, you can set different ad groups to focus on different sets of customers. You can set separate ads for rally cars, sports cars, public transport, heavy commercials, etc.
Keywords
Keywords determine the relevance of ads to search queries and influence the actions taken on your ads.
To enable your ads to appear on relevant searches, identify your audience's intent and create content that answers their queries.
If you want to create brand awareness, you`ll choose keywords that entice people to view your website. If you sell products or services, use keywords that persuade people to buy.
For brand awareness, use informational terms like how to, why, guides, case studies, etc. so your ads convince people to learn skills and you`ll spread brand awareness.
When setting ads to sell products and services, use commercial terms like buy, purchase, affordable, cheap, etc. You will attract people to make purchases.
Keywords help search engines to match your ads with the exact things people are searching for hence driving sales.
Here is more comprehensive content on how to identify your audience`s intent and create content with the potential to drive sales.
Ad Texts
These are text ads that appear on web pages and social networks or search engine results pages. They are mostly displayed in languages identifying them as advertisements so viewers can notice them.
To rank your ads on relevant searches and increase your quality score, ensure to use keywords related to people`s search queries.
How to Choose the Best Platforms for PPC Marketing Campaigns
 |
| Image by Alena Shekhovtcova: Pexels |
Your campaign goals decide the platform you should set your ads. That`s because your ads will convert if you avail them in platforms where your target audience is.
Besides, advertising networks require varying ad budgets, therefore, you need to choose a platform that aligns with your budget.
To choose an advertising platform, determine
Where Your Audience Spends Time
Every person has their favorite online platform i.e. social media or blogs.
Your ads will convert if you focus on your audience`s platform. For example, if you have a course on how to get 1000 followers on TikTok, you can convert more if you advertise it on social media than on blogs.
That`s because many of the people looking for that solution are on social media, and you will easily find them if you follow them there.
Meanwhile, if you sell e-books about how to create blogs that make money, you better focus on showing ads on search results and partnership websites.
That will help you increase the chances of increasing conversions to your ad campaigns.
Advertising Budget
Every ad network has its advertising budget limit. There are those charging a fixed monthly price and those for which you can set a daily campaign.
Therefore, you need to choose an advertising platform that aligns with your campaign budget so you can reach your goals.
For example, if you have a $300 budget and wish to spend $30 daily and drive traffic to your site, choose a platform that enables you to set daily campaigns. One that only allows monthly campaigns will force you to bid $10 per day, which can make it difficult for you to compete with other auctioneers and rank.
Some of the ad platforms you should consider are
Google Ads
This is a Google-owned advertising platform.
Google generates the most traffic compared to others, making it the best platform to increase the chances of your ad driving traffic and reaching a large audience.
With Google ads, you can run either daily or monthly campaigns.
Microsooft (Bing) Ads
Microsoft Ads is a Microsoft-owned online advertising platform, which enables you to show ads on social media, blogs, and search results.
Facebook Ads
These are ads you can create through the meta social network ads manager.
What`s better, you can show meta ads on both Facebook and Instagram. So, if this is your audience`s platform, you can focus only on it and save money.
AdRoll
Adroll specializes in ad retargeting and remarketing.
The good thing is it can display retargeted ads on many online platforms.
It can display ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all social media platforms, enabling you to reach many people and achieve your campaign goals.
RevContent
RevContent is one of the cheap ad networks that display native ads.
Native ads are ad types that take the form of the content on the page they are displayed, which can make the audience not identify them.
They include text, photos, or videos that resemble the displayed page look, which can easily drive a click-through rate.
Here is more on what native ads are.
How to Create PPC Marketing Campaigns
 |
| Image by Mikhail Nilov: Pexels |
To generate profits for your marketing campaigns, your ads should align with your business goals and your audience`s needs.
Based on your business goals, you can gauge the amount to spend and create ad campaigns that can help you increase conversions.
You can measure your campaign goals by
- The actions you want to get
- The type of campaign to set
- The theme of your campaign
To reach any of these goals, you should set your ads according to your key power indicators (KPIs), which can be
Brand Awareness
This is when you want many people to know about your business.
To succeed in increasing brand awareness, your ads should entice people to read your blog content. To build trust and drive more traffic, ensure the content helps your audience solve their needs.
You can measure brand awareness campaign performance through the traffic you get to your website, and social media comments. Many positive comments mean your content appeals to your audience and vice versa.
Lead Generation
Leads are people who have the potential to become clients, and lead generation campaigns are aimed at collecting prospects.
You can collect leads by building an email list to which you can market your business, using a landing page.
For a lead generation campaign to succeed, use a landing page that`s engaging and relevant to the audience's intent. That entails using a tone of voice aligning with the audience and creating copy that solves their problems.
Promotional Advertising
These are short-term advertisement campaigns, which entail using incentives to increase brand awareness, attract more leads to your business, or entice people to make purchases.
These types of campaigns don`t require much strategizing and are cheap and quicker to run since they focus on promoting a single product.
Sales Generation
This is when you want to sell your products or services through your ad.
To attract more sales, offer relevant goods that can benefit people.
That can include creating video ads showing processes of how the products or services are used.
You can also show testimonies of how previous clients benefited from your goods. This builds more trust and entices people to purchase.
Traffic Generation
If you need more traffic to your website, PPC marketing can also help you.
To create ads that help increase your website traffic, create campaigns that focus on educating people on relevant issues.
For instance, if you are in the agriculture industry, you can create and add about how to turn a balcony into a garden that makes you money. Then show proof of somebody who makes it.
So the ad copy can be, “See how this man makes $500 weekly selling spinach on his balcony garden”
When someone clicks, they will be directed to your website and learn more about the man`s process and how they can also do it. And your traffic increases.
How to Choose a PPC Marketing Campaign Type
 |
| Image by Andrea Piacquadio: Pexels |
Your marketing goals and the audience you target determine the type of campaign you should set.
For instance, if your goal is driving sales, you will increase the chances of driving conversions if you use shopping ads.
That`s because such types of ads are displayed to people with a high potential to buy.
The ad campaign types you should consider according to your marketing goals are
Search Ads
These are ad types that are displayed in the search results.
Your ad will rank high if it aligns with the context of the search queries.
When somebody makes searches, your ad gets displayed on the top page of organic search results to help you get the first views.
Display Ads
These are ads that get displayed on ad network partner websites. They get displayed in the form of texts, images, or videos to interact with readers and entice them to make purchases
For instance, if you sell motorbikes, you can create video ads that can be displayed on third-party websites. When somebody opens a website, they get displayed within or opposite the content to entice them to click and purchase.
Social Ads
These are ads displayed on social media platforms and messaging apps.
Depending on the platform you use, you can set your ads to show on the target audience`s news feeds, messengers, or stories.
Remarketing
This refers to targeting campaigns to people who have viewed or clicked on your ads but did not complete the call to action.
You can use cookies to know people who showed interest but didn`t take your desired actions and set campaigns targeting them.
Remarketing reminds people interested in your products or services to complete your desired action, which increases conversions.
Here is how you can create a remarketing campaign.
Shopping Ads
Shopping ad campaigns are used to promote products and services. They provide complete information about the product image, price, and product description to persuade the audience to purchase.
These types of ads are mostly used by e-commerce websites. They show on search results and third-party websites relevant to the ads.
Set Your Ad Campaign Budget
Your marketing goals should guide your campaign budget.
If you know the goals you want to achieve, you can set a campaign budget with a high chance of bringing profits.
However, set specific goals and measure them to ensure they are achievable within a defined period.
If you want to increase sales to your business, set a realistic amount of sales you want to get. If your business makes $3000 per month, it can be achievable if your goals are making $1000 more profits per month than $300,000.
That`s because to reach a $300,000 goal, you will have to spend a lot of money, and if your campaign fails, you will get huge losses and be discouraged.
After setting your campaign goals, find the relevant, high-volume keywords to use so your ads rank and drive conversions.
Search engines display ads closely related to the audience`s search queries. How you utilize your keywords determines whether your ad will get engagements or not.
Therefore, select keywords related to your campaign and ensure they align with what the audience searches.
Here is content about how to set an ad budget that can generate a high return on investment.
Select Your Bidding Strategy
 |
| Image by Ivan Samkov: Pexels |
A bidding strategy refers to optimizing your ads to produce your desired results.
Your marketing goals determine the bidding strategy you should set for your campaigns.
For your campaigns to succeed, align your bidding strategy with your marketing campaign. You cannot set the same bidding strategy for brand awareness goals as you would for conversion goals.
The bidding strategies to consider are
Clicks
This refers to the total number of clicks your ad gets.
If your goal is increasing traffic to your website, you need to get many clicks to your ad.
To succeed, you need to calculate how much you pay for each click your ad gets. That`s because every keyword has a different cost depending on its search volume.
Keywords with high search volume will enable you to get a high click-through rate and increase traffic to your website but are more expensive than low-volume ones.
Click-through rate is the percentage of clicks your ads get.
Impressions
This is the best strategy for spreading brand awareness. It implies the number of times people see your ads.
In this strategy, advertisers are charged in terms of cost per mile (CPM), whereby you pay per 1000 impressions.
Conversions
Use a conversion bidding strategy if your goals are getting sales or leads to your business.
This strategy helps convince the audience to buy your products or services or opt-in to your email list.
Ads in the conversion bidding strategy are charged per the action you want to get.
You will be charged differently when someone registers to your service from when they make purchases. This is also called the cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model.
It helps guide how much you should spend on your ad campaigns.
Views or Interactions
Cost per view (CPV) is a perfect bid strategy for video ads. You get charged for every view and the calls to action people perform on your ads.
For your video ads to be effective, create videos that are relevant to your target audience and show the benefits people can get in your business.
Set match Types
After setting your bidding strategy, you need to set match types to make your ads more targeted and attract clients with a high potential to convert.
Match types are ad features that enable you to set relevant keywords to your ad so they can be displayed on the exact searches.
There are four types of match types:
Broad Match
This match type allows displaying ads on queries that don`t exactly match keywords.
For example, if your keyword is freelance writer, it will appear on queries like technical freelance writer, freelance writer for hire, SEO freelancer, etc.
This type of match can display ads on broad searches, some of which may be irrelevant to your campaign. This can lead to getting traffic with low conversions.
Phrase Match
This match type displays ads on keywords with related meaning and form as your ad keywords. The keywords can add words in front or behind the keyword but not in between.
For example, if your keyword is “Lenovo Ideapad,” it will be displayed on searches like Lenovo Ideapad for sale, modern Lenovo Ideapad, etc.
This match type helps you put your ads in front of a targeted audience and increases your chances of getting conversions.
Exact Match
This match type displays ads on identical search queries.
Keywords can be displayed in misspellings, abbreviations, and plural or singular forms of searches.
For instance, if your keyword is, “smartwatch” it will be displayed on keywords like smart watches, watch smart, smartwatch, etc.
The exact match can attract a few visitors but has a high chance of generating conversions since it targets a much more relevant audience.
Negative Keyword Match
This is an ad feature that helps to exclude ads from showing on particular search queries.
Negative keyword match types are divided into three categories:
Negative Broad Match
This negative match type blocks your ad from appearing on searches containing your selected keywords, irrespective of the order.
If your keyword is, “women`s black handbags,” and you exclude the word “black,” your ad will not appear on relevant searches that include the word black.
Negative Phrase Match
In this negative match, your ad will not be displayed in search queries that include keywords in the same order as you selected.
If you set your negative keyword as, “heavy commercial cars,” it won`t appear on searches in the same order even if it includes some other words e.g. cheap heavy commercial cars for sale.
However, if the meaning of the keyword is the same as the search intent but not in the order selected, such as “commercial heavy cars or cars heavy commercial,” your ad will surface.
Negative Exact Match
This match displays ads in the same order set, without extra words. If you set the keyword, “keyword research tool,” as a negative exact match type, your ad won`t appear in exact search queries.
It will show in queries such as SEO keyword research tools, or email marketing keyword research tools,” but not in “keyword research tool.”
Set Audiences
This involves targeting your audience so you can spend money on ads that attract people who are likely to convert.
Ad platforms have options where you can track user behaviors, which can help your ad to get displayed to people in the market related to your products and services.
In addition, you can increase bids for ad groups that get more traffic. For instance, if you are selling phones and the Samsung ad group gets more conversions, you can increase its bids by 35%.
This helps concentrate on the profitable campaigns.
Add Sitelink Extensions
Siteinks help add more information to your ad and make it more descriptive.
For example, if you are running a real estate agency ad, you can add extensions that show your company contacts, location, and working hours.
This enables people to know how to reach you. It`s also one of the best ways to rank your business and also get it on Google Maps.
here is a more in-depth resource where you can learn how to add site links to your ad.
Optimize Your PPC Ad Copy
Using the right keywords helps ads to be displayed to potential clients.
Therefore, incorporate descriptive keywords that answer your audience's intent to entice them to take your desired actions.
Then use a strong call to action that shows how people can benefit from your services.
Moreover, use your audience`s tone of voice and create short sentences and paragraphs so people can easily understand.
You can also add bullets and bold so people can easily see the important points.
This will persuade people to sign up for email lists or make purchases.
This resource teaches more about how to create copy that convinces clients and converts.
Optimize Your Landing Page
A landing page contributes to your ad quality score and attracts people to click on your ads. Therefore, to get profits from your ads, ensure your landing page is user-friendly and relevant to your campaigns.
To achieve that, use a clear design and layout and create an enticing heading aligning with your ad.
Moreover, use a mobile and desktop responsive design with a clear call-to-action button so it can be accessible on different devices and increase traffic.
Learn more about how to optimize your landing page here.
Conduct A/B Testing
A/B testing enables you to know which campaign performs better and how to improve the underperforming ones.
It is a user-experience research method that marketers use to compare the success of two versions of products or services in the market.
You can conduct A/B testing on your PPC ads to know the effectiveness of your ad heading, description, keywords, and landing page.
To do that, split and track your campaigns to see which one performs better than the other. Then, analyze the results to know why the other campaign underperforms so you can improve it and attract more clients.
Here is an A/B testing guide to help you learn how to test your ad campaigns.
Manage and Track Your PPC Campaign
 |
| Image by Tima Miroshnichenko: Pexels |
To get the best out of your PPC campaigns, you need to analyze the campaign performances.
This will let you know whether you get a good return on ad spend and how to make your campaigns relevant and appealing to your target audience.
To manage your PPC,
Monitor Keywords
This enables you to know the high and under-performing keywords.
Under-performing keywords are the ones that attract low traffic to ads, while the high-performing ones generate more traffic.
To measure your keyword performance, log in to your ad network account and click on keywords. You will see the keywords and how much traffic they generate for your ads.
Replace the low-performing keywords with ones with high volume so you can drive more traffic to your ads.
Adjust Bids
This refers to making changes to your bids based on performance on different platforms, demographics, languages, devices, etc.
If, for example, your ads are performing better on desktop than on mobile devices, set a negative ad adjustment.
A negative adjustment enables you to bid a favorable amount of money to the device from which you drive more traffic and lower your bids for the underperforming device.
So, if you get more conversions from desktop audiences, you will prioritize that over the normal bid for mobile searches.
Learn more about how to adjust bids here.
Track Landing Page Conversions
You`ll know your ad performance based on your conversions.
To know your landing page conversions, place a tracking code on your landing page to enable you to know if your ad campaigns bring your desired goals. This helps to make adjustments when needed.
Here is more on how to track your landing page conversions.
Do Custom Ad Scheduling
If your ad campaign has been active for a specific period, you will get enough data on your most profitable times.
This will enable you to program your ad to show at specific times when your target audience is online, which helps minimize your budget and drive more conversions.
Google ads allow scheduling ads so they can appear only on specific days and times.
Utilize PPC Marketing and Generate Quick Income for Your Business
If you need faster marketing results, PPC marketing is the way. It enables even new businesses to rank and attract clients.
All you have to do is, before creating your ad campaign, set achievable goals and identify your audience`s intent and persona.
Then set your ad budget and decide on a bidding strategy.
Later, search for high-volume keywords related to your products or services and create an ad copy that shows the value people can get from your ads. That will help you increase traffic and conversions to your ads.
0 Comments