Traditional advertising lacks the reach of paid search while promising a much higher price tag for brands. Some companies are afraid to delve into the realm of Pay Per Click advertising. We’ve all heard horror stories about depleted savings accounts and crushed dreams – the things that keep business owners awake at night. But someone is succeeding, or PPC wouldn’t exist. Here are a few epic PPC strategies to help your brand win a better return on paid search investment.
Diverse Keywords
A common misconception about PPC is the need for only a handful of keywords to experience results. With most businesses using 100 or fewer keywords, there’s no reason to wonder why positive outcomes are not yet on the horizon. According to Jay Baer, brands doing PPC well (and making bank) are using upwards of 12,000 keywords. Granted, this takes a larger investment, but small businesses are not excluded from a diverse keyword strategy. Focusing on long tail keywords within a PPC campaign often costs less while bringing in quality leads.
Landing Pages
So you’ve got clicks. Now what? Do we rest on our laurels? Absolutely not – there’s still work to be done. Your viewer’s time is precious, so increasing conversion rates from a PPC campaign involves optimized landing pages. Designed properly, landing pages are readable, concise and a great opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality. Keep it interesting, and invite viewers to stay by adding images, video, testimonials and trust factors. A well-placed call-to-action or opt-in form frees up space on the landing page for visitors to pay attention to content – not sales tactics.
Quality Writing
While not meant to be a novel, landing pages are worthy of quality writing. Even if a landing page has a simple video and call-to-action, the script’s quality will weigh heavily on a viewer’s decision to learn more. A huge, but extremely common, mistake made by many businesses is the tendency to treat a landing page like a sales flyer. After clicking paid ads, viewers should be taken to an area of value – one that speaks to the problems they’re facing and offers a solution. Instead of focusing on your brand, offer insights into how your product or service helps others. Why should your visitor stick around or, better yet, make a purchase? To communicate value effectively, quality writing is a must.
Investing in PPC
When going it alone, investing in PPC can be pretty risky. Between the need for in-depth keyword research, price comparisons and positioning, building a paid search campaign is a complicated process. Without the help of a PPC manager, businesses stand to lose a great deal of capital on a poorly executed PPC strategy. As organic reach in social media, particularly Facebook, is declining, PPC is emerging as the best option for heightened brand awareness, more traffic and higher conversion rates. Before navigating the waters of PPC unguided, however, decrease risk and improve results by establishing thorough management of the campaign from start to finish.
Have you been successful with PPC campaigns? Why or why not?