It’s a good thing if you’re running, or thinking of running, a Pay-Per-Click campaign. There are a number of benefits whereby PPC can be cost effective, targeted, measurable, fast, and customizable. In fact, many marketers constantly look for ways to increase their ROI using PPC.
However, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and overlook those small, critical, things that can make or break your efforts. Here are some pearls of wisdom to consider when you’re managing PPC campaigns.
10 Pro Tips for Managing PPC Campaigns You Shouldn’t Ignore
1. The top ad position is not always the best one. The end goal should be conversions. Therefore, you should place focus on cost-per-conversion and the placement that offers the best ROI. Is it position #1, #2, #3, or #4?
2. Test pricing in all of your ads. Is your pricing structure competitive? Experiment to find out if your pricing is better, or worse, than your competitors. Try placing your price in the headline or the description line and update the ad copy as needed.
3. Make sure you’re up on the use of automated rules. AdWords’ automated rules are helpful, especially when you may be absent over weekends or other times when you can’t properly monitor the account. This allows you to pause ads that perform low, remove under-performing keywords, adjust bids, and better control your costs and budgets.
4. It’s also good to test ads with percentage versus dollar discounts. It’s possible that both can work. In any event you’ll be able to find out which type works best.
5. Stray from the norm a little and try disregarding best practices. Wait, what? It doesn’t hurt to experiment a little. It could be something small like not capitalizing every word in the ad. Whatever you decide, just make sure it doesn’t distract from the overall message. Sometimes breaking the rules a little can yield surprising results.
6. Monitor impression shares. This can be another overlooked and effective tool. In AdWords, the impressions you receive divided by the number you were eligible to receive provides a percentage. The higher the percentage, the better. You could be missing out on some valuable impressions. In any event, you can find out if lower, or higher, impressions are due to ranking or budgeting factors.
7. Give mobile users an action. For mobile ads, statistics indicate there’s a better ROI when asking users to “tap” on an ad. It might seem a bit insignificant, but it makes sense if you consider that your prospect is using a mobile device. Your click-through rates and ROI should both increase.
8. Another winning technique can be to bid on your own brand name. Try bidding on variations of it as well. This works to essentially tie up real estate and occupy the spots where the competition might try to steal. It’s all competitive, and your competition is brainstorming ways to beat you day and night.
9. Watch the change history report. This is an additional tool you can use to monitor if the campaign is effective or not. You can emulate good changes in other ad groups. With bad changes, you can revert back to a previous ad.
10. Make sure that relevant landing pages are up to speed. The mission for utilizing PPC is to grow. It may be rather easy to create, but it takes serious and thoughtful planning to implement. Visitors click on an ad because it interests them, and they likely want to learn more. Make sure your landing pages match the offering.
Pay-per-click is an essential tool for anyone looking for a comprehensive search engine strategy. You can realize immediate results. You can also achieve a number of goals that can include boosting visibility, securing new leads, increasing traffic, and boosting conversions. While it’s not the end-all-be-all of Internet marketing, it can definitely help you get the boost you need to grow.