The Not-so-secret Secrets Of PPC Marketing – What It Is And How You Can Master It? 

So you want to do some online marketing? You’ve got your email funnel setup, your videos cut, your lead capture page ready, and you’re set to focus all your efforts on driving leads and converting them into sales, right? Well, this is where paid search marketing can give you a leg up. When done right, it can help you achieve all your short and long-term business goals. And the best part? It can do it without breaking your bank! But how do you do it “right?” Let’s find out!

What makes PPC attractive is that it’s one of the most transparent and cost-effective tools at the disposal of online marketers today. PPC campaigns allow you to see vital statistics on user behavior, text ads, keywords, and much more. Best of all, however, is the fact that you can use your paid search campaigns as “instant sales generators:” you can pause your campaign when sales are high, and you can switch them on again when sales are weak to get an instant sales boost.

Although Google claims that managing a PPC campaign is easy, we strongly disagree. Sure, setting up an account, selecting some keywords, and allocating a budget is a piece of cake. But making more money than the campaign is costing you? That’s a real challenge! This article will provide you with a great insight into some advanced techniques that veteran online marketers and webmasters use to maximize the returns on their PPC marketing. Pay attention and get ready for the most useful write-up you’ll ever read on PPC campaign management.

Some considerations

Before implementing your PPC strategy, you should consider the following:

• Define the purpose of your online marketing campaign: some businesses use PPC purely as a “sales generator” tool. Some use it as a way to encourage new client leads and others for increased brand awareness. What’s your purpose?
• It’s important to have realistic short and long term expectations. Bear in mind that online campaigns deliver improved results the longer you run them.
• Set a realistic monthly budget: always consider your budget relative to your product’s margin of profit. PPC can have a massive effect on sales and lead generation, but don’t forget to formulate a strategy before you kick off your campaign. The alarmingly common approach of “let’s allocate some budget for six months and see what happens” is a recipe for disaster.

Prepare your website

Statistics show that you’ve got exactly 6 seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your site. If the visitor doesn’t instantly find what he or she is looking for, your budget won’t translate into business or leads. It is therefore crucial for your website to have the following characteristics:

• Enticing images – If you offer a service, pictures of happy people will give the impression of satisfied end-users. If you’re offering a product, make sure that your images are clear and represent your product realistically.
• Good web copy – Don’t use all caps or exclamation marks to sell your products/services. Ads like “LEARN HOW I LOST 100 POUNDS IN 4 DAYS. CLICK HERE NOW!!!” are a big no. Instead, keep your ad copy simple and straight to the point. Use words like proven, quick, fast, or easy, and ask questions that your audience can identify with (such as “Are you looking for a solution to this problem?”). When it comes to web copy, less is more – so don’t clutter your site with gratuitous words.
• Call to action phrases – Tell your visitors what you want them to do. Examples of some good call to action phrases are: “Call now!”, “Buy today!” or “Contact us!”.
• No scroll bars – Wherever possible, fit everything into one screen or frame. The more a user has to scroll, the more chance you have in losing their interest in your business.
• Site design in HTML – Flash websites might look glorious, but they can murder your paid search campaign as they can slow down your site and hamper its UX. You may incorporate some flash images to improve your site’s look and feel; however, keep your site predominately HTML for faster load times and better user experience.

Concentrate on the Segments of the Market that You Can Serve

Make sure that you’re very specific about how you can solve a need. Say you run an institute in New York that offers accent alteration classes for foreign executives that want to sound more American. Now, when managing your paid search campaign, you’re likely to lose a lot of money going after the keyword “accent change.” Why? Because the people you’re targeting may be looking to change their accents in other ways than attending a class (think CDs, computer software, teleseminars, or one-on-one phone consultations). So, instead of using vague keywords like “accent change,” use more specific keywords like “accent alteration class” or something like “accent alteration class in New York.” While you’re at it, don’t forget to make use of negative keywords (software, phone, book, CD, etc.) to filter out unqualified prospects.

Optimize Your Campaign for conversions, not clicks

Click-through Rate (CTR) is the number of times your ad is clicked for every 100 times it’s displayed. The Conversion Rate (CR) is the number of visitors that complete a goal on your website (place an order, download your whitepaper, sign up for your newsletter, or whatever you expect them to do.) CTR is a crucial metric for two reasons: a) Google will display your ad in a higher position if your CTR is high and b) a high CTR also means that you’re getting more traffic. The problem with taking CTR as your primary metric is that people might visit your website and not convert, which means that you’ll be wasting a lot of money attracting them. Google Analytics allows you to set up goals and see the conversion rate and ROI for each of your keywords. If a keyword is converting well, try increasing its bid. If it’s converting poorly, get rid of it. Pretty straightforward, right?

Use Long-Tail Keywords

A long-tail keyword is the opposite of a general keyword. For example, “cars” is a general keyword, and “2020 Honda Civic Type-R” is a long-tail keyword. A specific term doesn’t have as many searches as general terms, but it will cost you a lot less and will bring you much more qualified prospects. Someone searching for “cars” isn’t very likely to become a paying customer any time soon. But someone searching for “buy 2020 Mazda CX5 in New York” is.

Use Negative Keywords

Some negative keywords are pretty obvious – if you offer high-end web design services, you probably have these negative keywords: free, cheap, affordable, and low cost. But sometimes, you might be missing some less common negative keywords that can hurt your campaign. Set up your Analytics with advanced filters to find out the real search terms that people are using. This way, you’ll find out if your ad is showing for search terms that are unrelated to your business like “web design book,” “professional web design in Miami” (when you’re located in New York), or “how to learn web design.”

Use DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion)

This is by far the best way to boost CTRs. DKI is a technique that allows you to insert the keyword that the person searched for in the headline of the ad. Ads with the keyword in the headline are highlighted by Google and get a lot more clicks than ads without it. This is how you do it in Google Ads: {Keyword: Default Keyword}, where “Default Keyword” is the headline that should be shown in case that the search string is over 25 characters long.

Use Your Ads to Pre-Qualify Prospects

Because you’re shelling out for each click you get, you want to make sure that you only get qualified traffic. If your services are more expensive than the average, include the price in the ad. If you only serve your city, include that in the ad as well. “Web Design in Austin, TX – Make Your Company Stand Out. – Custom Designs Starting at $4,000.” is a good example.

Don’t Start a Campaign Bidding Too Low

If your bids are too low, your ad will appear at the bottom of the page (if at all), and you’ll create a deplorable CTR history, which will cost you more in the long term. It’s always better to start bidding high and then lower the bids if necessary and not the other way around.

Structure Your Campaigns Right

Don’t just throw all your keywords into one ad group. Divide them into different campaigns and ad groups, so it’s easier to optimize the campaign later. If a keyword is getting a lot of traffic, give it its own ad group. Remember that 90 percent of your traffic will most likely come from a handful of keywords, so watch that elite group very closely.

So, there you have it. If you’re dipping your toe into the pay per click pool for the first time, these “secrets” will surely help you make the most of your marketing. Managing the finances of a small business can be tough, so don’t make it harder by neglecting your PPC campaign!