PPC campaigns can be a great way to increase your business exposure while your organic SEO results take hold. Small business owners are always looking for new and creative ways to attract leads and clients. PPC or, Pay-Per-Click advertising, is one strategy that allows you to pay a small amount of money to a search engine, usually Google or Bing, to advertise for search traffic based on a target keyword. So for example, if your company sells Western clothing, you might run an ad every time someone searches for the term “cowboy boots.”
That ad appears along the top or the right hand side of the screen in the search results. If a searcher clicks on your ad, they are taken to a designated landing page on your site and you pay a certain pre-agreed amount for that click. This type of search engine marketing has the potential to dramatically increase your flow of leads and customers. It’s critical to make sure that you’ve got a solid plan in place and are constantly reevaluating and improving your PPC campaigns to get the best return on your investment. Professional experience managing a PPC campaign, usually in the form of an outsourced agency partner, can ensure you’re getting a return on this digital investment.
Focus on Target Keywords
Keywords are the most important aspect of a PPC strategy. Keyword advertising uses search terms to determine what ads to serve up and when. To generate your keyword list, start with common industry terms and then use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to suggest other related terms you may not have thought of. The best keywords for your PPC campaign are those that have a higher search volume and a lower level of competition from other advertisers.
Ease in and Constantly Refine Your Copy
Start a PPC campaign by testing it out a lower budget level. There’s a fair amount of risk here, so be sure to choose an amount of money that you are comfortable experimenting with. Once you’ve set that amount, write your copy and test your ads. Identify which ads convert the best. After you’ve established a set of ads that perform well, continue to refine them by changing small elements and test, test, test. If you follow this process, you will continually increase your conversion rates over time and effective screen out copy that doesn’t work.
Track Your Results
Collect data from your campaigns using a conversion tracking tool. Tracking the results of your PPC campaigns enables you to continuously refine ad copy and target keywords to improve performance over time. Conversion tracking tools such as Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter allow you to see which keywords and ads generated the most clicks, visits, and conversions. There are also more sophisticated and customizable third party tools if paid search becomes a larger part of your strategy.
Determine Your Budget and Lifetime Value of a Customer
It’s important to make sure that your PPC campaigns are actually worth the money that you are investing. When you’re running your campaign, take the time to calculate your profit. In order to determine your profit, you’ll need to identify your cost per acquisition (CPA) and lifetime customer value (LCV). CPA is calculated by taking your average cost per click on a given keyword, and dividing it by your average conversion rate. For example, if you are paying $4 per click and getting 2 customers per 100 visitors, your CPA would be (4/.02) = $200. LCV is the profit received from each new customer you acquire. Let’s say you are netting a profit of $500 for each customer. You’ll then take your LCV minus your CPA to determine your total profit. So in this case, the total profit per customer for your PPC campaign would be $300. That’s worth the cost of acquisition.
Hire a Professional
Tracking the data, managing keyword lists, watching your bids, and continually refining your copy is a lot of work. It can be a full-time job. If you’re serious about PPC as a major advertising channel for your business, consider partnering with a knowledgeable firm to get the job done.
PPC can be a tremendously effective means of getting your brand and products in front of new audiences. The keys are to target the right keywords, focus on writing high converting copy, tracking your results, and knowing your break-even point. If you’re truly committed to succeeding with PPC, consider partnering with an experienced PPC management provider to help you maximize the results of your campaign.
If you’re interested in exploring whether paid search is the right growth strategy for your firm, contact Be Locally SEO today to arrange for a personalized consultation and learn more about how our PPC experts can help your business.