In-depth analysis of PPC advertising and PPC advertising strategies

Not only do you need to know where you’re going to advertise, but you also need to know how you’re going to advertise. There are many different types of paid advertising campaigns, and which one you choose depends on the audience you want to reach. This isn’t to say you can’t advertise in a variety of ways, and you can try a range of campaigns as long as you keep testing and modifying them.

1. Search ads: Search ads are a more common type of PPC ads, referring to text ads displayed on search engine results pages.

2. Display ads: Display ads allow you to place ads (usually images) on external websites, including social platforms. There are several ways to buy display ads, such as the Google Display Network (GDN) and other ad networks.

3. Social advertising: Social advertising refers to any advertising you see on social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. You can pay to have your ads appear in your target audience’s social feeds or elsewhere on their profiles, depending on the platform.

4. Remarketing: Remarketing can use cookies or contact lists you upload to target people who have previously interacted with your company through certain behaviors. These actions could be filling out a form, reading a blog, or simply visiting a page on your website.

5. Google Shopping: Google Shopping is more effective for e-commerce websites. Based on your target keywords, your ad (including image, price and a brief product description) will be displayed in a carousel on the search page.

Perform keyword research

Each ad group you create needs to be assigned a set of target keywords so that search engines know when and where to show your ads. A general rule of thumb is to choose one to five keywords per ad group. These keywords should be very relevant and your Quality Score will depend on relevance.

Choose keywords that are closely related to the specific theme of your ad group. If you find that you want to target keywords that fall outside of one theme, you should create separate ad groups for them.

It’s important to be careful not to keep using the same keywords you picked when you first started. In fact, you should pay close attention to your keyword list from beginning to end throughout the entire advertising campaign, eliminate those keywords that do not bring target visitors, and increase the bids for those keywords that can bring target visitors, and try to choose more relevant keywords.

Setting up Google Analytics and tracking

Google Analytics is free to use, so there’s no reason not to install it on your website. This tool gives you insights into your website's performance, how users interact with your pages, and what content is engaging with your visitors. The information collected from Google Analytics can be used for PPC and elsewhere.

How to create a high-quality PPC campaign?

Here are some tips on how to create high-quality paid search ads.

1. PPC Advertising Copy

Bidding on targeted keywords will allow your ads to appear in front of the right people, and good ad copy will get those people to click on your ads. Just like with keywords, your ads need to address the searcher’s intent. You need to give the searcher what they’re looking for and make sure the phrases you use clearly communicate that.

Search ads consist of a title, URL, and short description, all of which have character limits. So make the most of these character limits and make sure your ad copy:

The content is directly targeted at your target group;

Include your paid keywords;

Provide an actionable CTA so searchers know what to do next.

The content provided is attractive;

Use language that matches your landing page message.

Conduct A/B testing for the copy you use.

2. Landing Page

Arguably one of the most important elements of PPC (after your ad copy) is the page that a potential customer lands on after clicking on your ad. This page needs to be highly targeted, relevant to your ad, deliver on the promise, and provide a seamless experience because the purpose of a landing page is to convert your new visitors into leads or customers. Not only that, but high-converting landing pages can also improve your Quality Score, which can lead to better ad placements. A poorly designed landing page can significantly impact the profits you make from your PPC campaigns.

PPC landing pages should include the following to increase conversion rates:

A title that reflects the content of the advertisement;

Simple design and layout;

Responsive, easy-to-use forms, and prominent CTA buttons;

Copy that is very specific and relevant to the target keywords;

Deliver the benefits promised in the advertisement;

The landing page is A/B tested.

3. A/B Test PPC Ads

Marketers rarely offer something to your audience that has not been tested. PPC campaigns are no exception. Like all other elements, A/B testing is crucial to paid advertising campaigns. The goal of testing ads is to increase click-through and conversion rates.

You should test the following four parts of your ad: headline, description, landing page, and target keyword. Small adjustments to just one of these elements can dramatically change your results, so you'll want to adjust them one at a time so you can see exactly where the improvement is coming from.

Since you can only test one scenario at a time, make a list of all the potential tests you could run and prioritize them by which factors will have the biggest impact. Second, run your ads long enough to gather the data you need, and test them early so you don’t waste budget on ads that don’t perform well.

4. Optimize return rate

Improving the ROI of your advertising campaigns means considering the lifetime value of your customers and your customer acquisition costs, which will help determine how much to spend on new leads and what percentage of that should go toward paid advertising.

You need to focus on inputs and outputs, starting with reducing inputs (cost per lead, CPL) and increasing returns (revenue). Here are some factors that can affect both.

5. Ways to reduce investment

Determine your advertising budget before you begin;

Create more relevant ads. The higher the relevance, the lower the CPC.

Improve your quality score. The higher your quality score, the less the search engine will charge you for clicks.

6. Ways to increase returns

Design high-quality landing pages to increase conversion rates;

Track high-quality leads through specific advertising. The higher the quality of your leads, the greater the chances of them converting into customers.

Additional PPC Tips and Tricks

There are other things you can do to improve your return on paid advertising, whether it’s time on site, budget, clicks, or conversions.

1. Audience

Google allows you to customize your audience so you can save marketing dollars and deliver your ads to the right people. You can upload your customer list so you don’t waste money on customers who have already purchased from you. Google also offers options for potential audiences. For example, In-Market Audience uses user behavior tracking to put you in front of potential customers who are in the market for something similar to your product or service. You can also increase your keyword bids for more relevant subgroups within your target audience, a practice called tiered audiences.

2. Bid Adjustment

You can make bid adjustments by raising or lowering your bids based on performance. You can even tailor these based on different categories like device, demographic, language, etc. For example, if a keyword performs differently on mobile devices than on desktop, you can add a negative bid adjustment so that when someone searches for your keyword on a mobile device, you bid lower than normal.

3. Customize advertising schedule

You can set up ad scheduling in Google Ads so that your ads only run during certain days and times. This can reduce ad spend and increase relevance to your target audience.

4. Additional Link Extensions

You can use sitelinks to supplement your ad with additional information. For example, if you’re advertising a seasonal sale at a local store, you can add sitelinks to show store hours and location. Sitelink extensions can also help improve your ad ranking.

5. Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking monitors the performance of your landing page by placing a tracking code on the page that users land on after completing a form (usually a “thank you” page). By enabling this feature, you can better align your campaigns and, therefore, improve your conversions.

6. Keyword monitoring

You should check the performance of your keywords as soon as possible. You can set higher bids for keywords that bring better results to your campaign and eliminate other keywords.

7. Match Type

Match types in Google Ads let you choose how relevant your ad group should be to the search terms. There are four match types: broad match, modified broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Google will display your ad in search results based on your selections. For example, if your keyword phrase is “how to catch a goose” and you select “broad match,” Google will show your ad to any query that contains the keyword, such as “goose, catch” and “goose, catch, how.”

8. Negative Keywords

A negative keyword list lets search engines know what you don’t want to rank for. You may know some of your negative keywords, but you can also identify them by looking at the poorly performing keywords in your campaigns.

Social Media Advertising

Although CPM is more common on social platforms, social media sites also offer PPC similar to search engine advertising in that you can set a budget and bid for ad placement. The difference is that social media ads can be displayed directly in the news feed on most platforms, thus avoiding being blocked by ad blockers. Social platforms like Facebook allow you to set target demographics and target people based on interests. While paid search is more focused on keywords, paid social is more focused on people, giving you more ways to target your audience.

There are two crucial paid advertising features on social media: retargeting and lookalike audiences. Retargeting is remarketing to people based on a website visit or manually uploaded contact lists. Lookalike Audiences examines the people on your marketing lists and creates audiences that are similar to your lists, expanding your potential audience. Paid social also offers a wider variety of ad types, such as images, videos, text, etc.

PPC Management and Tracking

You need to manage and continually monitor your ads to ensure they are performing optimally. Management, analysis, and tracking are crucial to your PPC campaigns, not only because they provide you with useful insights, but they also help you create more effective campaigns.

What is PPC Management?

PPC management encompasses many methods, including creating and adjusting goals, split testing, introducing new keywords, optimizing conversion funnels, and adjusting plans to achieve goals.

Managing your PPC means you need to consider both strategy and spend. On the one hand, it means that you need to update your plan to optimize keyword efficiency, and on the other hand, it means that you need to consider how to allocate resources to certain keywords and how to adjust these resources to achieve higher returns. A good management strategy should also focus on advertising providers (such as search engines, social platforms, and ad networks) to monitor changes and updates that may affect paid advertising campaigns. Overall, PPC management is a daunting task, which is why it might be a good idea to opt for a reliable PPC management tool.

PPC Tools and Software

Using a PPC management tool will make it easier for you to track all of these factors. You can choose to monitor your ads within the platform, but you can also use other tools, and it’s crucial that you have a powerful, easy-to-read spreadsheet or sophisticated software that gives you deep insight into your ad performance.

If you choose to use software, you’ll want to look for features like: multi-user support, cross-platform management, A/B testing, scheduling, reporting, and ad ranking.

Here are some popular PPC software and resources.

WordStream automates the tedious work of setting up and managing PPC campaigns.

HubSpot offers a powerful template to help you monitor and manage changes to your campaigns, making it easy to track ad groups, keywords, and A/B tests.

NinjaCat allows you to consolidate all analytics from multiple platforms into a single report so you can track your entire campaign in one place.

Optmyzr has end-to-end PPC support, including features for creating ads and reporting on performance.

SEMRush can help you manage keywords in your PPC campaigns. You can find related keywords, manage and optimize keyword lists, and create negative keyword lists.

PPC Metrics Tracking

Here are some key metrics you need to track in your PPC campaigns.

1. Clicks: Clicks refer to the total number of clicks you receive on your ad. This metric is affected by keyword selection and the relevance of the ad copy.

2. Cost per click (CPC): The amount you pay for each click your ad generates.

3. Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of ad views to clicks. This metric determines how much you pay (CPC), and CTR benchmarks vary by industry.

4. Number of impressions: refers to the number of times the advertisement is displayed. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is determined based on every thousand impressions, which is more relevant for branding campaigns.

5. Advertising expenditure: refers to the amount you spend on advertising. You can optimize your ad spend by improving your Quality Score.

6. Return on advertising spend (ROAS): The return on your advertising campaign. This metric represents the return on one dollar spent on advertising.

7. Conversion rate: refers to the percentage of people who complete the call to action on your landing page and become potential customers or customers.

8. Cost per conversion: refers to the cost of developing potential customers, which is calculated by dividing the total cost of advertising by the number of conversions.

9. Quality Score (QS): The quality score determines the placement of your ad, so it’s an important metric to keep an eye on.

By keeping a close eye on each metric, you can improve the return on your paid advertising campaigns and spend less to get better results.

Author: Hugo.com Chen Jie

Source: Hugo.com Chen Jie