It’s now regular practice for companies to use PPC marketing to discover new clients for their goods and services. However, many small companies have been let down by their first experiences with PPC. It’s a risky business move. PPC marketers that are just getting started sometimes underestimate how much time, money, and effort it takes to build a successful campaign.
PPC may be difficult and costly for small companies, which is why so many of them fail to make a mark. It’s especially important when they’re up against more established firms with well-funded digital marketing groups. The good news is that small businesses CAN compete for clicks with bigger, more established firms. Being a little more clever and agile will go a long way.
Here are five ways to succeed in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising!
1 Pick the Right Keywords
Ad creation is easy thanks to pay-per-click (PPC) online marketing. You pay a tiny price each time your internet ad is seen and clicked on. An example of pay-per-click advertising is seen in search engines like Google or Bing and social media platforms like Facebook. PPC’s goal is to bring in new customers by exposing your company to a wider audience online.
This is possible, but only with the correct keywords. When it comes to PPC advertising, keyword selection is critical since it determines how much money a small company will have to pay. If you don’t pay attention to keyword research, you’ll burn up your marketing budget before you can say, “Hey, Google…wait!”
When it comes to keyword selection, many small companies just go with what they believe is relevant. However, following your instincts isn’t always the wisest course of action. It’s a good idea to utilize a research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to get your ideal keyword list.
The following bad things will happen if you don’t spend the effort to find the best keywords to bid on:
- Spend your money on phrases that have a lot of competition (and do it quickly!)
- Due to unrelated terms, you’ll receive a lot of clicks, but none of them will result in sales.
- Nothing will happen since no one will utilize your keywords to find your items or services.
- Keywords like “old vehicles for sale” or “where to buy vegan leather shoes” demonstrate desire to purchase, so choose ones that meet your budget, have a high search traffic, and are very relevant to the product or service you’re selling. That’s the PPC and business winning keyword formula.
PRO TIP: Look for keywords with a lengthy phrase attached to them. These are long-tail keywords that are more than just a single word or two. Keywords with a longer, more particular phrase have a lower level of competition, but are still very relevant to the product or service you are marketing.
2 You Must Be Organized to Optimize
Even though it doesn’t seem like fun, keeping your Google AdWords account clean is an important part of being successful. There is one thing that all great campaigns have in common: a well-defined organizational structure.
Begin by considering “what am I attempting to accomplish?” If you know the answer to that question, it will be easier to choose a marketing type for your business. Here’s a quick self-assessment to see whether your PPC marketing efforts are on track:
- How about a…
- Will potential new clients discover my company/product on the internet?
- If that’s the case, you’ll benefit from launching a search network campaign.
- Do you want to raise awareness about your company’s brand?
- Then you’ll need a campaign on a display network.
- Do you want customers to contact your company?
- Then you’ll want to implement a campaign that just involves phone calls.
- To keep customers coming back to your website and remembering your service?
- The next step is to choose a remarketing strategy.
- Is it any of the preceding?
- Try each one out and see which one you like.
Your structures are built on the backs of your campaigns. Having simply a few campaigns is also acceptable. It will be easier to handle if you have fewer things. Begin with a basic project and only grow when it makes sense. If you had a tiny chocolate store, you could run a campaign for each variety of chocolate you sold (fair trade, milk, white, dark, and vegan). You may run a campaign for both for-sale and not-for-sale goods. For a small firm, you must select what is most appropriate.
Your ad groups will be located inside your campaigns. The creation of ad groups should be based on keyword topics. For instance, you might create an ad group only for the phrase “dark chocolate” (ie. Dark chocolate bars, dark chocolate for sale online, best dark chocolate shops, where to buy dark chocolate, dark chocolate with almonds etc.). When you first begin, restrict the number of ad groups to a bare minimum. Each campaign should not include more than six or eight commercials. Try to keep the number of keywords per ad group between 10 and 20. PPC advertising will display when people do searches containing such keywords as a result of the keywords being used as triggers.
The following graphic illustrates how AdWords is organized, starting with the Account level and working its way down to campaigns, ad groups, and individual advertisements. There are also samples of ad extensions and how keywords should be grouped inside each ad group (a website link, a phone number, a location etc).
TIP: Use your keywords to find specialized geographies that your rivals may have overlooked.
for instance, “Albany mechanics.”
TURBO TIP: Look for buzzwords that indicate a business’s purpose. In other words, clients are using search terms that indicate they are ready to make a purchase. Think about something like this: “low-cost auto repairs in Albany.”
3 Build Ad Copy that Converts
Ad copy is the content that you produce for your AdWords, Bing, or Facebook advertising to get people to click on your ad and learn more about your product or service. When using a search engine like Google, the goal is to offer relevant advertising that indicate something about the search that was conducted in the search engine. A decent headline for your advertisement may be, for example, “Are You Looking to Buy Shrubs in Montreal?” if you operate a plant nursery in Montreal and your keyword is “Where to Buy Shrubs in Montreal.” Search engines like Google will value your ad more highly because of the relevance of the headline to the term and the inquiry.
However, it’s more complicated than that, and effective ad text may be written using a variety of strategies. SMX West recently held a workshop on writing effective ad content, and the following suggestions were shared:
Use phrases like “Only 3 Days Left” or “2 Items Left in Stock” to create a sense of urgency.
Resolve issues like “same-day furnace repair”.
Like “Tired of washing laundry?” be empathic.
In the form of “Free delivery,” state your value offer clearly.
Stand out from the crowd with sitelinks and ad extensions (see example below)
Keep your terminology simple and straightforward; avoid using flowery or flamboyant jargon.
Of course, you’re under no obligation to accomplish any of these goals in the ad’s title! Sitelinks and ad extensions, on the other hand, make this impossible. An ad may accomplish all of the aforementioned goals while still being extremely relevant to the searcher’s needs (the keyword!). In this part, we’ll dissect several types of ad wording you may use to promote your small company and generate PPC leads. To comply with Google’s ad text length restrictions, below are the essential elements of your AdWords ad copy.
Headline 1 [30 characters]:
Headline 2 [30 characters]:
Description [80 characters]:
URL/Path 1 [15 characters]:
URL/Path 2 [15 characters]:
Extensions: Not applicable here, you’ll fill out fields for different extension types like location for example.
But with success in mind, here’s what your ad copy should follow:
4 Plan Your Budget – It Takes Money to Make Money
Spending money on pay-per-click advertising and not seeing results may mean you need to reevaluate your strategy and your budget. A lot of small companies establish a PPC budget that’s just too low to have any noticeable effect on their bottom line While the average click-through rate for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is about 2%, newer technologies like machine learning are making it possible for campaigns to perform far better.
It’s true that small firms often aren’t ready to invest the required cash to see results if machine learning doesn’t lower the cost of PPC for these businesses. It’s been said that anything less than $500 a month is a waste of time. The truth is that (take a big breath) spending less than $1000 a month is unlikely to provide tremendous benefits.
Acquisio has employed machine learning to lower the entry-level charge for PPC in order to make it more affordable for small enterprises. In a previous post, they explained:
It is now possible to employ the ‘algos’ even for accounts with a monthly ad expenditure of just $100. For smaller companies, machine learning may be out of reach, but agencies who work with small and medium-sized businesses can utilize software like ours to help manage, optimize, and grow many accounts. Our machine learning technology already benefits hundreds of small company PPC accounts served by Google Channel Partners, Publishers, and Resellers.
For the most part, small companies lack the resources to take advantage of the advantages that machine learning provides PPC marketers. They may also join up directly if they don’t use a PPC marketing firm that offers them access to machine learning optimization. In order to ease ad production and setup while enabling ad spend levels as little as $100 utilizing machine learning optimization, Acquisio’s Promote product was intended for small company owners to leverage Acquisio’s monthly subscription model. The problem of small company machine learning was already addressed by them.
Small company owners don’t understand how much attention our Promote product has received since it’s a solution driven by automation and machine intelligence. To provide this machine learning martech to small company owners, we’ve collaborated with significant banks as well as small business service providers. And we’re not the only ones who think this way. There are several instances of machine learning technologies for small enterprises that are becoming more available.
Lead Stream by Web.com, for example, aims to make PPC simpler for small firms while simultaneously giving them access to machine intelligence.
5 Landing Pages With Offers They Can’t Refuse
A personalized landing page that directly corresponds to what someone just clicked on should be the next step after your ad has attracted their attention and been clicked on. It is common for small companies to direct visitors to the homepage of their website, but this isn’t the ideal strategy for converting them. As an alternative, you should create landing pages that include the keywords from your PPC ad, display the product or service solution that your new visitors were looking for on Google, and include a large, unambiguous call to action such as “Book Now” or “Buy Now.”
Consider making them an offer they won’t be able to refuse. Offers that provide value to your new visitors’ experience are more likely to result in a click on your CTA. With a tempting offer, your conversions can soar. Do you want your conversions to soar? Consider putting one of these deals on your landing page and see how it performs for you.
- Try the service out for free first.
- Offer things at a discount
- Provide a freebie in exchange for a purchase.
- Include a coupon code with the newsletter registration to encourage people to join up.
Now Proceed with caution. Upkeep of Your Clicking Machine
Marketers that are successful at PPC are those who are always improving their strategy. The more you handle and maintain your PPC advertising, the better the outcomes will become. Your ideas and plans must be tested on a regular basis in order to stay one step ahead of your competition and start receiving clicks.
Things to keep in mind…
Focus on the keywords that are delivering results and eliminate those that aren’t (replace these with new ones).
A/B test various graphic and text combinations in your adverts to find out which ones are the most appealing and successful.
A/B test various offers on the landing page to increase conversions. Try out a few different variations of your landing pages to see which one converts the best.