Stop Wasting Money – PPC Campaign Tips

The internet is full of tips for PPC campaigns but what’s much more important than any one tip in particular is that you think in detail about exactly what you want to achieve. If you want your PPC campaigns to create as many conversions as possible you need to understand how your potential customers think and, above all, what they’re looking for.
One of the most important tips for PPC campaigns is to be thorough in your keyword research. Choosing the correct keywords won’t just ensure a healthy supply of clicks but will also determine what you do with the people who arrive on your website. If you understand who they are and what they’re looking for then you’ll be able to send them to a high converting landing page and ensure that as many of your potentials as possible become customers. If you fail to do this correctly you’ll waste a small fortune bringing people to your website who have no intention of buying your product. You’ll make them unhappy, increase your bounce rate (never a good thing) and you’ll waste your own money, a situation you really want to avoid.
To help you steer clear of this PPC nightmare we’ve rounded up some of our top tips for PPC campaigns and examples of behaviour to avoid.

What do your Users want to See?

Keyword research is of critical importance when designing any PPC campaign. Be creative when choosing keyword research tools. What’s most important is that you put yourself in the mind of your potentials. What are they looking for? What results are they expecting to see when they type that keyword? There’s no point in a car hire firm buying ads on the term “London Cars” if 90% of people searching for that term are looking for taxis.
You also need to understand where your users are in the buying cycle. 96% of first time website visitors aren’t ready to buy. That means that you need something to capture their data and interest before making a sale. Offer them a comparison between your product and your competitors; let them know about the market in general with reviews of other products perhaps; explain how your product will make their life easier. Above all capture their details so you can send them follow up emails until they are ready to buy. A visit that doesn’t end in a sale should not be a wasted visit.
What’s more, if you create ads which are relevant to a user’s search, have a low bounce rate and engage potential customers, your cost per click will fall. This happens because Google prioritises relevant adverts which help users making a particular search. The key takeaway here is be useful and relevant and your costs will fall.
 

How do you find the Right Keywords?

How can you begin to find keywords that address user intent?

Google’s Keyword Planner is a good place to start. Type in the generic search term for your product or service (“MP3 players” or “digital marketing”) and take a look at the related keywords with the highest search volume. When you see the keyword suggestions think about what the person searching for each would be looking for.
If their keyword has ‘buy’ or another purchasing action keyword in it then you can be fairly sure that this person is ready to purchase. Send them to a page featuring products with prices and an easy method of purchase. This person is an easy win. If you get them to click on your advert you’re likely to get a sale. Sadly there aren’t very many of them!
On the other hand if their keyword features a word like ‘reviews’ then they are in the research phase. A product comparison page is excellent for searches like this. Show them why your product is better than the competition. Make sure the page has a way of capturing their details so that you can  nurture them so that they’ll come back to you when they’re ready to make a purchase. Offering an incentive like special discounts or free accessories in return for their email address can be very helpful here.

How Does This Work?

To see how this works in practice let’s take a look at one of the product categories we mentioned earlier: MP3 players.
A search for ‘MP3 player reviews’ brings up the following as the top ad

This is a link to a popular premium reviews website. Google understands that users searching for this term are not yet ready to buy and accordingly has prioritised a review based advert. Any money you spend placing sales based ads on this term will likely be wasted since users are probably not looking to buy and consequently Google will charge you more for placing an irrelevant ad.

When we search for “buy MP3 players” Google recognises that customers are ready to part with cash and pushes a retailer’s website to the top of the pile. Consequently its clear that you should place your direct selling campaigns around these types of terms. You’ll pay less for every good click and see higher conversion rates.
Creating a PPC campaign is not an easy process. It takes time, research and patience to create an effective campaign. If you’re looking for some advice then get in touch with our digital marketing experts to discuss how we could create the perfect PPC campaign for your business.