Today’s guest post has been contributed by Mark Chapman, the Founder and CEO of Everett Andrew Marketing, a PPC agency. Mark is a digital marketing enthusiast, who knows a heck of a lot about Pay Per Click (PPC), an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which advertisers pay a website owner whenever their ad is clicked. Read on for some of Mark’s juicy PPC secrets.
*****
1. Avoid Using “We” and “Our” In Your Copy
Using first person grammar makes it about you. But, potential customers want to know what’s in it for them. Improve your message and overall PPC strategy dramatically by making a small change to what you write. Take a look at the following sample ad text – can you feel the difference?
Bad: “We offer the best customer service and dedication to our clients.”
Good: “You’ll receive unmatched customer service and dedication your success.”
The second line of copy utilizing “You’ll” and “your” is dramatically more effective than the first. It puts the message in the consumer’s perspective – right where it belongs.
2. Don’t Use Your Homepage as a PPC Landing Page
PPC campaigns are meant to have a unique offer and matching call-to-action. For this reason, after someone clicks on your ad, the next thing they should see is a very specific page on your website that repeats the same offer and call-to-action written in your ad, and also supports it with more detail, social proof and relevant images.
Using your homepage forces potential customers to have to click many times and work too hard to find specific information about your offer. It’s highly unlikely that your offer and call-to-action are the main content of your homepage.
Improve your PPC strategy (and results!) drastically by creating dedicated landing pages that match the message of corresponding ads exactly. When the message of the ad matches the message of what a visitor finds on the landing page after they click, they know they’ve found what they intended, and are many times more likely to continue further into your sales funnel.
3. Never Ever “Set It and Forget It”
Remember the brilliant marketer of the 1980’s, Ron Popeil, and how the things he created were so easy you could just “set it and forget it”? Don’t treat your PPC strategy this way!
Your campaigns need continual optimization, and until they convert 100% of their visitors, there is more work to do. Continually optimize, and never stop.
Optimizing means that you are testing variables in your ad copy, keyword lists and landing page content. Your PPC strategy includes never-ending a/b testing with the intent to find what works best for each piece of the puzzle. (Sounds daunting? It’s not! I promise. It can actually be fun and extremely fascinating when you learn more about which variables mean the most to your prospective customers!)
Healthy PPC strategy never includes “set it and forget it.” If you don’t have time to continually test and optimize on your own, take a portion of your PPC budget and pay a qualified professional to help you. By hiring the right person, you’ll likely increase your return on investment significantly.
4. Measure Conversions
Marketing with Adwords allows you to count phone calls, lead forms completed on your landing page, appointments scheduled, and so much more. Failure to measure which keywords and ads create conversions can cause you to waste a lot of money.
Conversion measurement is the foundation of good PPC strategy. Without it, there’s no point in running PPC campaigns at all. You don’t go through the drive-thru of your favorite fast food chain (c’mon, we all do it once in a while ☺) and hope that they put your burger in the bag, do you? Certainly not. When we pay for something we expect something for our money, and without measuring conversions we’ve got nothing.
So, set up conversion measurement right away! It easy to do, and will be the key to successfully optimizing your campaigns, reducing spend and ultimately getting more business.
Want to learn more or receive help implementing any of the PPC strategies above? Get in touch with us today! Your PPC campaigns deserve the love and attention they’ve been missing…
