Pay Per Click (PPC) provides businesses with a way to get their website ranked at the top of search engines. If done correctly, it’s a simple way to not only generate traffic and enquiries, but targeted traffic that will lead to more conversions and better online performance for your company. Here is some advice on how to optimize your PPC campaign to minimize waste and maximize effectiveness:
First, make sure you don’t just go for the least expensive keywords. This will hinder effectiveness because even though it may increase the number of clicks you get, they are less likely to be quality clicks because you are not focused on the right audience. You want the most relevant and specific keywords you can get because these will generate the appropriate traffic. It’s better to pay $2 for a highly targeted keyword than to pay $1 for a broad keyword that will not attract the kind of traffic you are looking for. A higher quantity of traffic is not better, but a higher quality of traffic is; targeted visitors are the ones that will take action; make a purchase, sign up for emails, search your page.
Pay for your own brand name. Many businesses do not think to purchase the keyword for their company name, but by purchasing the name you will be able to keep similar results from coming up before yours. Often people will search for the company rather that just put the company name in the URL, so you want to be sure yours is the first result they see.
When bidding on keywords don’t always pay the maximum bid. If it is a specific term that relates to your company, chances are there’s not many people bidding on that keyword and you can get it for less. Play with combinations of bids and find the one that will work best for you.
Another aspect of keyword choices is negative keywords. It’s important to include negative keywords, or keywords that will not result in the appearance of your ad. A good example of this is the companies Pandora; there’s the free online radio and there’s the jewelry company. The radio Pandora would want to include words like “jewelry” or “earrings” in their negative keywords so they do not show up on these searches. In the same way, Pandora the jewelry company will want to include “radio” and “music” in their negative keywords in order to decrease waste.
When defining the terms of your PPC campaign there are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure that the geography is not too broad, and focus on the location where you’re most likely to convert. Local searches are more likely to lead to conversions, so unless you are a national or regional company, try to stay within a 20 mile radius of your business. Another aspect of the campaign that is important to regulate is the timing. If you have a small budget, try to use day parts. This means that your ad appears when you choose. It is best to only run during the day or at high performance times in order to increase effectiveness.
Once your campaign is in place it is important to track its performance. Data such as visitors, clicks, and conversions are important to keep an eye on. Be careful how you track, don’t rely on only one variable, basing your results on number of clicks could be misleading because you could get a lot of clicks that don’t lead to conversions. Use a combination of variables to see how they work together and how one performs next to another. When tracking, it is also a good idea to make more than 1 ad per ad group. This allows you to track which ad is most effective and to optimize your campaign based on their performance. Be sure to make the copy compelling and include a call to action in your ads.
When done correctly, a PPC campaign can lead to greater traffic and business performance. Remember to think locally and specifically. Pay attention to all aspects of the campaign, don’t ignore important pieces of the campaign, and make changes where they seem necessary. A combination of these techniques will bring you to the top of the search engines rankings and help your business perform better.
