Pay-per-click advertising is turning out to be a promising method of online advertising for all types of businesses. In the digital marketing world, running PPC ads helps to build brand awareness, generate leads, increase sales, etc. Whether running ads on social media platforms like Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, etc., or e-commerce PPC ads, optimizing the ads is essential to achieve the desired advertising goals. These LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, etc., need to be optimized regularly to improve the ad performance. When creating a PPC ad campaign, there are many points that advertisers focus on, like keyword research, writing ad copy, adding ad extensions, etc. After the ad is live, the optimization process is the significant point to concentrate on. The success of PPC campaigns depends on how well the PPC ad is optimized so that your ad budget does not get wasted on irrelevant clicks. You can read our blog ‘Guide to PPC advertising’ to learn more about PPC advertising. In this blog, we will discuss the essential strategies to optimize the ad campaign for the maximum advertising ROI.
Why optimize PPC ad campaigns?
Pay-per-click advertising is an online marketing method in which advertisers have to pay search engines or online platforms whenever their ad is clicked. This method of digital marketing is different from search engine optimization. The goals of a PPC ad campaign may be different, like increasing website traffic, brand awareness, form fill-up, etc.
Ad campaign optimization is a process that needs to be done regularly. When an advertiser creates an ad, they bid on the keyword. The PPC ad campaign needs to be optimized to have a higher ad rank & position on the search engine. The ad campaign's performance can be checked by tracking the performance of the essential PPC metrics like cost per click, cost per acquisition, number of impressions, click-through rate, etc. After preparing a data-driven PPC report, you can concentrate on the essential pointers that need to be optimized as per the business goals.
8 Essential strategies to optimize PPC ad campaign
As the internet is becoming accessible worldwide, digital marketing engages more businesses to advertise online. Launching ad campaigns and optimizing ad campaigns are different things. With online marketing being different from traditional marketing, the optimization strategy is also different. Whether running SEO campaigns or PPC campaigns, the optimization plan & strategy varies differently in the online marketing world. So, it becomes essential to optimize the ads. With multiple strategies to optimize for PPC campaigns, some of the vital strategies to optimize PPC ad campaigns are discussed below.
1. Analyzing keywords - The essential PPC metric that plays a keyword role in ad campaign optimization is choosing the relevant keywords. Different businesses have different target goals, so keywords' performance varies accordingly. Some points on which the performance of keywords depends on click-through rates (CTR), cost per conversion (CPC), and the number of conversions. After conducting a PPC audit to determine the performance of the keywords, some of the essential pointers on which the keywords can be optimized are discussed below:
a. Review negative keywords list - Negative keywords are search terms or phrases that trigger your PPC ads from appearing. To optimize PPC campaign performance, it is vital to update the negative keywords to prevent your ad budget from getting wasted on irrelevant clicks. This may result in a reduced number of clicks, but the target audience reaching the landing page has a high chance of taking the intended action.
b. Using exact match keywords - When performing keyword research, you need to identify those keywords that are highly relevant to your ad campaign and put them in the exact match category. This way, the online platform will only show the ad to the user who enters the exact keywords as in the ad campaign. You need to put exact match for high-traffic keywords, as these may lead to higher CTR, lowering your cost-per-click and increasing conversions.
c. Pause low performing keywords - When you view your keyword report, you can identify keywords with a low search volume. It means that for a particular period, the number of searches for that keyword was low, so the search engine shows it as low performing. You need to pause these keywords as they may not return the same result as desired. The main issue is that it may hamper the ad campaign's overall performance, negatively impacting keywords and quality score. E.g., Suppose you run e-commerce PPC ads; you may include ‘holiday ads’ in your keyword list when running ads at times of Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year, etc. On these occasions, the term ‘holiday ads’ would perform well, but not every time. You can outsource PPC ads services from a white label PPC agency as they have worked on a PPC campaign strategy to optimize PPC ads.
d. Using broad match identifier - The broad match keyword match type is used to target a wider range of audience. Using this keyword match type helps showcase your products or services to a wide audience without building an extensive keyword list. The best practices for these types of keywords are:
a. Ensure that the keywords set to broad are at least 3-4 words long so that the proper context can be applied.
b. Avoid single-term keywords unless they focus on the brand name.
When to use broad match keywords is discussed below:
I. When you want to drive long-tailed keywords or search queries to your landing page.
II. When looking for a lower cost per click.
III. When performing audience research, determine how users reach your landing page.
IV. When you can't hit your daily ad budget.
2. Ad copy - In your ad campaign optimization strategy, the next essential point that you need to focus on is optimizing ad copy. In the PPC campaign strategy, optimizing ad copies is vital so that the target audience knows about the product or services offered. The more engaging the ad copy is written, the better the chances it grabs the user's attention, luring them to reach the landing page.
It is the essential part of an ad and is usually found between the title and the display url. Getting started with PPC ads like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, etc., needs setting up the account and providing business details. The core point lies in actually maintaining the PPC campaign performance so that the ad campaign yields the desired results. Some of the essential points to focus on when writing ad copy are discussed below.
a. Location targeting - It is vital when writing ad copy for specific target locations like any specific region, state, zip code, etc. With this feature, you can zoom in on target audiences, and it is quite beneficial when running local ads. It keeps your ads specific and focused on the target audience with high chance of taking the intended action.
b. Using ad extensions - Another essential aspect to focus on when writing ad copy is using ad extensions. With the use of ad extensions, you provide additional information to your ad viewers. It helps bring the highest quality audience to your landing page and avoid users just doing window shopping. Some ad extensions are sitelink extensions, call extensions, location extensions, price extensions, app extensions, promotion extensions, etc.
3. Landing page - Optimizing the landing page is the next vital point to focus on in PPC campaign optimization. Landing pages are essential to optimize as they provide the first impression to the users looking for the products or services offered. The more description the landing page provides about the product or services, the better the chances of the visitor getting converted into customer. You need to focus on the point that the website navigation is easy so that the visitor easily reaches the page they are looking for. Some of the essential pointers to focus on when optimizing landing pages are listed below:
a. The page should be relevant to the PPC ad, like text ads, video ads, shopping ads, search ads, remarketing ads, etc.
b. Comparing own and competitors’ landing pages.
c. Have eye-catching call-to-action (CTAs) that creates a sense of urgency among the visitors ultimately increasing conversions.
d. Make the landing pages mobile-friendly.
e. Demonstrating to the users the uniqueness of your products or services.
4. Advertising budget - One of the essential points in PPC advertising strategy is to focus on the ad budget. All the PPC campaign strategy - from running PPC ads to its optimization process revolves around the ad budget. When optimizing a PPC ad campaign, you need to focus on the budget as to how much you wish to spend. When you define a daily budget you wish to spend to achieve your target goals like lead generation, brand awareness, etc., you need to define how much money you wish to spend clearly. Bid strategy and bid adjustment are the essential pointers to optimizing PPC ad campaigns in your advertising strategy. If you encounter bid management tough to work with, you can outsource PPC management services to a white label AdWords agency. Some of the essential pointers that you need to focus on when working on optimizing ad budget are mentioned below:
a. Establishing ad goals - In your PPC campaign strategy, you must clearly define the ad goal you wish to achieve. The advertising goal varies from business to business. The goal may be lead generation, form fill-up, etc. In your advertising strategy, the ad goals are benchmarks you establish to compare your results. E.g., If your advertising goal is to generate leads, then you can compare the number of leads generated to the ad goal you wished to have at the start of the ad campaign.
b. Bid strategically - To optimize the PPC ad budget, you need to focus on the point that you bid strategically to achieve the desired results. You can consider manual or automated bidding, which suits you best. If working on a bid strategy is tough for you, you can outsource PPC services to a white label AdWords agency that helps you achieve desired results in a specified budget. When you outsource PPC agency to formulate the best plans for your advertising strategy, the PPC experts constantly update you with the necessary pointers that need to be optimized.
c. Segmenting your target audience - In the digital marketing world, users come from multiple online platforms. Users from different platforms have different interests, and not all are relevant to your ad campaign. So, it would be best if you worked on audience segmentation so that you drive a relevant target audience to your landing page and avoid irrelevant clicks.
5. Ad scheduling - Ad scheduling is the next essential point to focus on in the PPC campaign optimization strategy. Ad scheduling is done in PPC ads to display the ad to the target audience at a specified time. The users may be spending different time on various platforms. Like on social media platforms, they may spend more time at a specific time. Also, the users would be spending time on devices differently. So, you must consider optimizing your ads for mobile devices. Ad scheduling can be done at a particular time, so relevant users visit the ad. It increases the chances of the user clicking on the ad. It saves your advertising budget by showing your ads on the days and times they best perform. Some of the essential points to consider in ad scheduling are listed below.
a. Time of day - You can schedule your ads at what time of day you want your ads to be displayed. You can consider increasing bids during specific hours to improve ad performance as the chances of conversions increase.
b. Day of week - This is done depending on which day of the week you wish your ads to appear to the target audience. Users may be entering keywords or search terms more on specific days like holidays, festive seasons, etc. So, you can consider ad scheduling on these days.
6. Ad personalization - In your advertising strategy, you need to focus on creating ads that focus on audience personalization. The ads need to be optimized to focus on audience personalization so that the users have a feeling that the business thinks from the user's perspective. Some essential pointers that need to be focused on in audience personalization are enumerated below.
a. Use high-performing keywords.
b. Have a good targeting strategy.
c. Localize ads based on geographical location.
d. Use remarketing lists.
7. Audience targeting - The more you narrow down your audience list, the more targeted your ads become. Audience targeting is essential in PPC campaign optimization as only some visitors who reach your landing page get converted. However, this strategy would be fruitful for businesses looking to increase traffic and generate leads. So, when optimizing the PPC ads, some of the essential points you need to focus on are discussed below.
a. Expand reach with Google’s in-market audiences.
b. Perform remarketing.
c. Creating a custom audience list.
d. Adding chatbots.
e. Asking for ratings & reviews and then optimizing ads accordingly.
8. A/b testing - Using a/b testing on a PPC campaign, the ad campaign's performance can be determined from version a or version b. It helps to compare two versions of the same ad to gauge which version performs well. The advertisers can then notice which version brings in more desired results and finally implement them. It is also essential to perform these tests when any update is available; these test results help determine what would help increase traffic. If you find the a/b testing process difficult, then you can outsource PPC services to white label PPC Company. Some of the points to focus on in a/b testing are listed below.
a. Focus on the bounce rate.
b. Time spent on page.
c. Conversion rate.
d. Design & layout.
Wrap up
Running PPC ads is a different thing and achieving the desired results from these PPC ads is another. PPC optimization is not a one-and-done thing and requires an essential optimization process to be followed regularly. For e.g., the PPC optimization strategy that yields good results for e-commerce PPC ads may not give the same result for other businesses. As there are several stages of optimizing PPC ads, and to optimize campaign performance every stage needs to be optimized continuously. After performing a PPC audit, a PPC report of the essential PPC metrics that need to be optimized is highlighted. No matter how attractive you have created an ad, it only reaches its maximum potential if it gives a desired return on investment. If you find PPC campaign optimization challenging, you can outsource PPC services to a white label digital marketing agency. The white label PPC outsourcing services provide you with PPC experts that have mastery in optimizing ad campaigns like search ads, video ads, display ads, mobile ads, Facebook Ads, etc. Outsource PPC management services to scale your business ROI.
References:
● Going from Good to Great: 5 Ways to Optimize Your PPC Performance
● 15 Ways to Optimize a Paid Search Campaign