Every PPC (pay-per-click) advertiser wants to get the most out of their ad campaigns.
PPC advertising aims to generate optimal ROI (return on investment) from all the effort you put into it. If you don’t, you risk wasting your effort, time, and, most importantly, money on campaigns that give you very little awareness, leads, and sales.
To avoid this common issue, PPC optimization and knowing the best tips to get the most out of your ads can help.
PPC optimization can improve the performance of your paid search campaigns so you can boost conversions and see more profit rolling in from ads. But, learning how to optimize ads can seem like a long and complicated process, especially if you don’t know where to start.
This article will cover optimizing PPC campaigns with the seven most important tips for getting more out of your ads. This will give you a great starting point and allow you to implement our tips to optimize your campaigns easily.
Top Tips for Optimizing Your PPC Campaign
Organize Your Ads Account
The first step towards optimizing your ad campaigns is to look into the structure of your ads account and organize it. While this step may sound simple, organizing your account will prove massively beneficial because it will be easier to keep track of ads, group similar ads, create ad groups based on keywords, and identify the ads that work.
Notably, you can edit groups and campaigns together to save time. For instance, you can organize related ads in ad groups to make it easier to identify bids for each.
You don’t have to create a group for every ad or have all your ads in one group. This is because you will have difficulty splitting the budget and bid strategy for different keywords based on performance. To ensure you don’t face these issues, you must identify your keywords and related ads and create a campaign or group for different targets.
An incredibly effective method for organizing ad accounts is with ad groups based on business goals. For example, you can set up ad groups representing a different product category or page on your website.
You can even organize your ads based on your target budget or location. However, no matter which organizational method you choose, it is crucial that you identify and implement a structure for your PPC ad campaign.
Optimize Your Keywords
Keywords are one of the most important parts of any PPC campaign; they are the terms you target to get in front of the target user. If you have high-volume and intent keywords attached to your ads, you are much more likely to see traffic and conversions. But how do you optimize your keywords? Consider these points when creating a plan for your keywords.
Perform Effective Keyword Research
Research is the first step to finding the right keywords for your campaigns. Then, using a tool like the Google keyword planner, you can add the words you think you want to use and see search volume, big ranges, and more data that will help you find the right term for your ads.
You will also better understand your audience and how they search for you or related businesses. For example, “Men’s Shoes” is a generic keyword with high volume compared to “Men’s hightop basketball shoes.” But the latter is more relevant if you sell high-top basketball shoes for men.
Finding the best-performing keywords cannot be easy when. You have a massive list. That’s why a good amount of research needs to go into keywords. It would be best if you considered long-tail keywords, related keywords, and everything in between to get a leg up on the competition.
Pause or Remove Low-Performing Keywords
Keywords that aren’t getting traffic, site visits, or conversions do nothing but eat up your budget. That is why you need to keep an eye on the keywords that are performing well and remove the ones that aren’t.
A great way to optimize your campaigns is to target the best-performing keywords. If you run ads with keywords that cost a lot and don’t perform well, you will be spending more on your ads. So be sure to analyze the keywords you are targeting and eliminate keywords that aren’t performing well.
Use Negative Keywords
Negative keywords tell the platform not to display your ads to people using specific search terms. This is a great way to ensure you aren’t wasting your ad budget by appearing on searches that may have similar keywords but have nothing to do with your product. You can even use negative keywords to ensure you don’t appear for generic search terms.
If you are targeting the keyword “car painting service,” you can avoid appearing in searches like “home painting service” by using negative keywords.
You can brainstorm ideas, research, and look into past queries that trigger your ads.
Choose the Right Match Type
Match types impact whether or not your ads appear when a user searches for a keyword or related keyword. Broad match is the default choice, but they don’t get the best click-through rates. An exact match is a very specific match type that makes your ads appear only when a user searches for that specific word or word. Finally, phrase match is a keyword match type that allows you to show ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword.
It is important to understand each match type and choose the one that works best for your campaign.
Write Great Ad Copy and Headlines
Headlines are one of the most important parts of a PPC ad. About 80% of users only read the headlines when deciding if they should click on your ads. This means that headlines can capture 80% of your audience.
Incorporating your keywords, matching search intent, and using strong emotional language can help you create headlines that will convert users. To help you create powerful headlines, you can use a headline optimizer that instantly generates headlines incorporating keywords, focusing on benefits and avoiding using generic language.
When you create powerful headlines that drive clicks, you will optimize your budget and save money by having a higher chance to convert more users.
Ad copy is like a sales pitch; it is your first contact with the target audience. They need to resonate and speak to the user, making them want to click on the ad, learn more, and complete a purchase.
If the ad is boring, unengaging, or uninteresting, the user will likely skip over it or move to a competitor with great ad copy. The copy should be a brief introduction of the product or service, its benefits, and its quality to differentiate your business from the competition.
Good copy increases your CTR and quality score, affecting ad ranking, frequency, and cost.
Create an Attractive Landing Page
Getting people to click on your ad is only the first step. Next, you must ensure that the page they land on is optimized for the best user experience.
A good landing page is highly relevant to the ad’s keyword and gives users detailed information on how to benefit from your product or service.
Your landing page can be the difference between a user choosing you or your competitor.
Your landing page should persuade the user to purchase your product or convert it another way. The landing page needs to meet or exceed user expectations. A few of the key elements of a landing page you need include:
The information that the user is looking for must be easy to find.
Organize the landing page in a way that makes sense to your user when they land on it.
Besides, the appearance of the landing page needs to be clean and uncluttered so that the user can navigate to the section they want quickly, such as pricing, feedback from previous clients or customers, benefits, demos, etc.
Further, ensure that the call to action button or the lead capture form is always accessible to the user, so they can fill out their details and move down your marketing funnel.
Strong Headlines and Copy
A powerful headline and compelling copy on the landing page is a surefire way to make the user stay longer on the page and eventually convert.
Ensure that your headline has the keyword and that the ad copy closely matches the keyword and the user’s search intent. Filler content or overstuffing of the keyword in the ad copy can be a massive turn-off for prospects, which may lead to them leaving the page.
Ideally, the copy needs to inform the user that your product or service has great benefits, especially if they buy immediately.
To incentivize purchases, you can use “exclusive offer,” “limited time,” etc., that drive action.
Notably, you need to present the copy in bullet points, and you also need to ensure the sentences are short and to the point to make sure that you keep users engaged.
Attractive Design, Images, and Graphics
High-quality images and design on a landing page display professionalism and trustworthiness, leading to higher conversions.
Moreover, great design, which means helpful graphics, easy-to-read text, clickable CTA, and a high level of navigability, will go a long way in boosting your ad’s quality score and ranking.
A Clear Call-to-Action
Your CTA is probably the most critical element of your landing page. The call to action makes the user sign up or complete a purchase.
For maximum effectiveness, the call to action must be clear and engaging and use emotion to inspire action. For example, you can use words like “buy now to get a special discount” to trigger a fear of missing out in the user’s mind.
You need to ensure the CTA button is clear and stands out. You can even experiment with multiple CTAs throughout the landing page.
With a compelling call to action, you are essentially guiding the user to the next step, ensuring that the money you spend on the ad isn’t wasted.
Implement Effective Ad Targeting
One of the best things about PPC ads is their targeting options. They allow you to identify your target audience and locations where you want to run ads and utilize demographic information to reach the right people. But, of course, you want to spend your budget only on audiences with the best chance to convert; that is why targeting is essential to a great PPC campaign.
Location targeting can run your ads in countries, states, or regions your target audience is in. It doesn’t make sense to advertise to people that cannot use your products or services; it’s a great way to waste money on users that will never convert. Include the best locations for you and exclude the ones that will be a waste of money; this will surely help you save money on your campaigns.
Optimize for Conversions
Conversion rate optimization can be a handy tool if you are looking to boost sales from your existing traffic.
Essentially, you need to optimize your sponsored search ads, website design, and landing page to make the highest possible number of your site visitors convert.
Conversion rate optimization can be quite valuable for raising your profits without increasing your ad budget to boost the number of site visitors.
You can increase your conversion rate substantially with a few simple steps. For instance, you need to make it a priority to write clickable PPC ads. The ads need to be closely related to the keyword’s search intent and the need of your target audience. To achieve this, you can try using high-intent and long-tail keywords used by consumers looking to make a purchase.
Other than that, you need to ensure that your landing page is highly relevant to your ad. Your landing page must deliver on your ad’s promise to get the user into your site. So, if you brought in a user with a headline that said “get 30% off management software”, you need to provide that level of value for the customer to stick around. Besides, it would be best if you made it easy for the user to complete the desired action, such as signing up, requesting a demo, or making a purchase.
Test your PPC Ads
Creating ads is mostly about optimizing and iterating; you need to see what engages users with various languages, designs, keywords, and placements.
What ads are users more likely to click on? What headlines are the most engaging? Do images help improve conversions? What are users searching for? Use the findings from your ad test to create the most effective campaigns possible.
The best way to optimize headlines, copy, keyword strategy, and ad design is to run a user test. This testing method allows you to effectively get feedback from your target audience in a few hours, only to run ads you know the user will interact with.
Creating two different ads or testing one ad you created for your product or service and comparing them with feedback from your users will show you which one will perform the best once it goes live—reducing the risk of running ads that waste your money. This can all be done with a testing tool like Poll the People. You go live with your campaign without blowing your budget.
Conclusion
Your PPC campaign’s effectiveness can make or break your brand. A well-thought-out ad campaign that appeals to your target audience and drives them to take action can get enough conversions to justify your ad budget. Meanwhile, a poorly executed campaign can lead to monetary loss, damage to brand reputation, a drop in quality score, and even poor SEO results.
You can avoid these issues by organizing your ad campaigns account properly and taking care to group ads based on their relevance, budget, product type, and other factors that will help you track their performance closely and weed out the losers.
Moreover, you must prioritize choosing optimal keywords, writing compelling headlines and copy, and creating a landing page that drives conversions. Finally, once you have optimized your ad for conversions, you need to guarantee you only target people who need your product.
However, user testing is the most crucial step in optimizing ad campaigns, ensuring you don’t waste money with ineffective ads.
