Top 5 Tips for Optimising Your PPC Campaigns
Whether you’re new to PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, have recently started using PPC for your business, or are looking to use an agency for paid search, here are five simple tips that are designed to help you get the best return on investment out of your campaign.
How to optimise PPC campaigns – 5 tips for success
1. Set up your conversion tracking properly
All activity in your PPC account should be done with a specific end goal in mind. How will you know whether your campaign is successful if you’re not adequately tracking your KPIs?
Tracking is vital, as it shows you exactly where you are spending your money, allowing you to optimise your campaigns as time goes on.
When setting up your tracking, we highly recommend identifying what’s important to track. For example, a contact form completion is of significantly higher value than a brochure download. Don’t treat them the same, as this will give a skewed impression of how successful your PPC actually is.
Make sure to track all types of conversion separately. If more people are downloading your content, try to identify what you’re doing in those PPC campaigns and replicate this across your other ones.
Setting this up can be a little technical, so if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself, don’t hesitate to give our PPC experts a shout for bespoke support.
2. Be careful with automation!
Google is pushing a world where paid search is more and more prevalent.
They are giving less control over keywords, ad text and bidding, recommending that if you automate as much as possible, that Google’s algorithm will decide what works and optimise your account accordingly.
Great – easy money, right? Not exactly.
Google’s algorithm suits big brands with large monthly budgets, as it works best with large data sets. If you’re an SME with a smaller budget (which we’re guessing you are), or if you operate in a niche, low-volume industry, then the algorithm is unlikely to deliver results.
This means that automation usually ends up burning through small budgets while not really delivering much information that you can use to optimise your campaigns.
As a result, be careful over-utilising automated elements within Ads platforms. Automation can be great, but if you really want to make the most out of your spend, then manual optimisation is the way to go.
3. Tailor your ad copy
It’s very easy to throw keywords into your ad copy and call it a day.
However, chances are this is what everyone else is doing – how are you going to stand out from the crowd?
Just stating facts and stuffing keywords isn’t going to get you any real value. That’s why, in order to cut through the noise, you should:
- Include real, tangible USPs in your copy
- Write headlines that truly cover customer pain points
Use compelling calls to action (CTAs) to boost conversions - Think about how many ads you see in a day. Average people are bombarded with ads day in, day out. The only ones that catch your attention are the ones that are relevant to your needs, or the needs of your business.
Putting some effort into your ads now really does pay off when your campaigns go live. Again, if you need help creating great ad copy, get in touch. We have specialist PPC copywriters ready to help you boost your conversions.
4. Create killer landing pages
So, you’ve spent time creating some solid ad copy, you’ve optimised your ads based on keywords and are ready to set them live and rake in the clicks.
But have you considered where you’re sending them?
The initial click is by far the hardest thing to secure. However, if a prospective client clicks through to a lacklustre landing page that’s poorly designed and doesn’t include compelling copy, they’ll go elsewhere.
This is like an Olympian falling at the last hurdle – what a waste of your time and hard work.
Fortunately, our friends over at HubSpot have put together The Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages. We’ll summarise it for you below:
1. Craft a benefit-focused headline
2. Choose an image that illustrates the offer
3. Write compelling copy
4. Include the lead form above the fold
5. Add a clear and standout call-to-action
6. Give away a relevant offer
7. Only ask for what you need
8. Remove all navigation
9. Make your page responsive
10. Optimise for search
11. Remember to use a thank you page
Follow all of these steps and you’ll produce higher-quality landing pages than ever before.
Our general rule for landing pages is to remove anything that distracts from your CTA. You’ve got a prospect right where you want them, make sure there’s nothing that’s going to draw them away from taking your desired action!
5. Test, test and test again!
PPC is a process, not a task – your work is never done!
Test everything to ensure you are getting the best out of your campaigns. Test different keywords, ad text, CTAs within the ad text, different landing pages and so on. There are almost always improvements to be made.
Remember, don’t test every element at the same time. If you do, you won’t know what has or hasn’t worked. Say, for example, you’re optimising your landing pages. On one landing page you might want to edit the design, then see if that helps. Next, edit the format, or the text, but don’t do it all at once.
This is called A/B testing, and it’s incredibly important in PPC campaigns.
Once you’ve got a version of your PPC campaign that works best, use that as your base for the rest of your campaigns, then improve and optimise from there.
Looking to create a killer PPC campaign of your own? Look no further!
At Catalyst, we have a team of dedicated PPC specialists who work closely with our clients, helping them create PPC strategies that deliver more warm leads than ever before.
Want to create an amazing, conversion-focused PPC campaign for your business? Get in touch with our team today by clicking here.
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