How to optimize your pay-per-click (PPC) strategy

As an entrepreneur, you want all eyes to be on your business or brand. Have no fear, this is not a utopian desire. Indeed, one of the ways to increase the visibility of your business is to appear among the first Google search results and be visible on its ad network platforms such as YouTube, among others.

Here, two options are available to you: appear organically in searches, therefore without advertising, or using paid advertising. You might be tempted to opt for one or the other of these choices, but we will tell you that the correct answer is the combination of both options.

Why combine your organic and paid strategies

Organic search results are the result of months (or years) of producing quality content and strong SEO. Consistent blog posts and social media content will slowly increase your domain authority and move you up in search rankings.

Then there is paid search and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This allows you to circumvent the system and build a customer base in hopes of generating leads, closing sales, and quickly recouping your investment. However, you can't just throw money into a system and magically expect a good return.

You'll need some research, a little finesse, and of course, a lot of optimization for this. This is also where our agency comes in!

We manage and optimize Google Ads advertising campaigns for all types of businesses. When people use a search engine , we place your ads in front of them at the right time, throughout their customer journey.

The Basics of Paid Search and PPC

Before we dive into the details and offer practical advice , let's cover the basics.

What is paid search and what is PPC advertising?

Almost every Google or Bing search results page has a few links at the top with the word “ADVERTISE” written in bold next to them. These results appear above organic search results, allowing marketers to get exposure without having to invest months in organic content development. The company or brand receives a specific amount of money every time one of these links is clicked.

Some terms to know:

Keywords

In the search query, you can focus your ads on certain keywords. For example, if you are a dietary supplement manufacturer, you can target terms like “pre-workout shake” or “superior workout supplement.”

Short-tail keywords, i.e. generic keywords important to your industry, typically have high search volume and obviously more businesses vying for their use. If you focus on secondary keywords, they will have less competition and therefore it will be less expensive to use them for your advertisements.

Note that long-tail keywords, meaning keywords that are not searched as often as the most popular terms because they are very specific in general, will have less competition and cost less to use for advertising. advertisement.

Keep in mind that the price of the keyword, particularly on Google's advertising platform, Google Ads, depends on the competition for the purchase of this keyword.

Print sharing

An impression on Google Ads represents how often your ad is shown. An impression is counted each time your ad appears in search results or on a site in the Google ad network.

The impression share of your PPC ad indicates its performance. It's basically the number of impressions you got divided by the number of estimated impressions you were eligible for.

Negative keywords

Unlike target keywords, these are keywords that you don't want to appear for since you don't want your brand or business associated with them.

To avoid wasting marketing spend on unrelated search queries , you should monitor your impression shares and eliminate any negative keywords once your ads are running.

Optimizing Paid Search and PPC

Optimization of offers

As you probably know, being on the first page of Google is essential. Additionally, being in the top 3 places grants the vast majority of clicks.

But wait, you don't just want to be the first result on a results page; you want to be the first result on important search pages. To do this, you will need to refine your bidding approach.

If you rank two or three for ad words that generate positive ROI , you want to increase your bid to push them to number one.

If you're ranking first for ad words that aren't generating positive ROI, you'll want to lower your bid (or remove that keyword search altogether).

This is where budget management comes in. PPC and paid search marketing can quickly burn through a marketing budget if not carefully researched beforehand. With some ad words hitting the $40-$60 per click range, you'll want to make sure you're on top of your bid adjustments and, if you're working with a smaller budget, target more long-tail keywords.

Google Ads has an automatic bidding strategy and formatting tools to make sure you're not completely overwhelmed. Use these bidding strategies since over time,Google's machine learning has become quite adept at understanding consumer habits.

Investment recycling

Your ads aren't just for Google, Bing, and other search engines . It is also essential to note that sponsored search marketing methods can be used to target e-commerce platforms, like YouTube for example. Each platform has its own targeting strategy that allows you to generate ROI through sales leads and conversions.

Optimize your ad groups

PPC ads have a chance to capture the user's attention and entice them to click, but for that you need actionable keywords, a relevant headline, and optimized ad copy.

You have 135 characters to attract the attention of a user:

• 30 for the title;
• 90 for the body;
• 15 for the URL ad path.

This doesn't leave much wiggle room, which means you'll need to be specific in your descriptions. If your impression share is less than ideal, before deleting the campaign, try changing the text fields in your ad groups to see if you can generate more interest, keeping in mind that:

• Your title is the most important section — make sure it's relevant and direct;
• Use actionable words in your body copy;
• Keep the ad copy positive;
• Use the opposite theory (if you use words like “high” quality, try “low cost”);
• Make sure you get to the point in the first 5 words.

Optimize the conversion rate

If you have a high impression rate, but a low conversion rate — purchasing product, booking an appointment, etc. — it could be that your ad copy or targeting capabilities are good, but you are targeting the wrong audience.

Use key search tactics including affinity, market, and lookalike audiences in your search campaigns to increase conversions.

These will encourage Google to show ads to more qualified prospects (those who are likely to convert).

Effective management of your site's tags is crucial for your site's analysis and optimization. Increase the performance of your website thanks to Bofu expertise. Make an appointment now for an exploratory call with our team.

Optimize against the competition

All of this strategy and research is not done in a vacuum. Remember that you are competing with your entire industry. That's why, if you're a small player, your best bet is to focus on long-tail keywords that have less competition. Likewise, if you are an up-and-coming player, you can compete for your own brand.

Large companies with unlimited marketing budgets can purchase Google ad words that target smaller competitors' markets, including attacking the latter's own brand.

If your business isn't first in search results when you type in its name, you may need to run ads under your own name to make sure your competitors don't steal your traffic.

Another competition-focused strategy is to identify which Google ads competitors are using and what their ad copy looks like.

With an “ auction insight ” report You can better understand your competitors' advertising presence since this report identifies which competitors are also running ads using your keyword sets and how often. Use it to determine what type of messaging competitors are using and how they are driving traffic.

Search term monitoring

Google Ads gives advertisers the unique ability to see exactly what users are looking for when they serve their ads.

This provides solid insights into consumer psychology, which then allows you to make adjustments not only to your advertising campaigns, but also to your website . Indeed, you will learn more about the high-performing search terms that should be added to your campaigns so that the amount of budget spent and the destination of traffic is intentional.

On the other hand, if a search term is not relevant to your product or service , it should be added as a negative keyword to prevent ads from showing similar searches in the future.

Optimize internal levers

There is a wealth of useful reporting information that Google Ads provides. This information includes:

• Age groups;
• Sex;
• The level of household income;
• The devices that performed the search query.

Advertisers can change their bids and optimize for certain demographics as data is acquired. This constant pushing and pulling of buttons allows your brand to explore new territories and reach new people.

From zero

If your business is launching a sponsored search marketing campaign , make sure you have a solid foundation to build on. Despite the fact that Google offers excellent metrics, easy-to-understand reporting, and management options, real-time optimization without prior study will waste your marketing resources.

This is why digital marketers , like our agency, carry out an audit of companies and their audiences before launching a campaign. The better and more thorough the audit, the less effort and resources will be wasted.

To generate quality PPC campaigns and reach more customers, contact us today to see how we can help you grow.

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