Pay per click advertising (PPC) is an excellent method for gathering up more traffic and getting more conversions, but if you aren’t careful, PPC advertising has some drawbacks. If you don’t know what you are doing before starting your first pay per click advertising campaign, it could wind up feeling like a costly mistake. Therefore, we have compiled a list of things you should know before beginning a PPC campaign to help you make the most out of this investment.
Contents
Understanding Long Tail Keywords
Without understanding how ads work, you’re jumping into PPC advertising blind. You simply do not just want to use “head” keywords nor the highest trafficked keywords. What you want is a string of words that your customers would use when looking for the services you provide. In essence, these words cannot stand alone as a “head” but rather work synergistically to create a “long tail.” Use keywords are lengthy, use specific keywords, and when combined make up a large portion of search traffic.
An example of a head keyword is “digital marketing.” As for a long tail keyword, we could use “free digital marketing courses online.”
In essence, long tail keywords help you get more for money by driving a larger number of people towards lower-traffic terms, instead of only a small number to higher-traffic terms. Less competition, less money spent.
The Different Types of Ads and Ad Listings
Second, you need to know where you are going to be putting these ads and what you actually want to use. There are many platforms out there to help you get started, but choosing them can be rather difficult.
Here are just a few places where you can try your ad listings:
- Bing
- Yahoo
- Google Adwords
- StumbleUpon
Each has their own limitations. For example, Google only allows 25 campaigns per account and 2,000 ad groups per campaign. Meanwhile, Yahoo allows 20 campaigns and 1000 keywords per ad group campaign. You need to compare and see which platform helps you the most.
As for the kinds of ads you can use, you are probably familiar with both display ads, banner ads, and text ads already. Banner and display ads kind of work like advertisements in a newspaper–with pictures and other flashy bits to attract customers’ eyes.
Text ads, on the other hand, are what you usually see as the primary result on a Google search engine results page. Compared to display ads and banners, text ads are much cheaper and can be useful for people who are looking for something specific.
Create a Landing Page
One of the best ways to lead a potential conversion along the buyer’s journey is to have a proper landing page to welcome them to your website. Landing pages have a number of benefits include allowing for customized messages to incoming visitors, creating a cohesive experience or to push visitors to perform certain actions, such as downloading your free guide.
A landing page also helps you create a “call to action.” Ask yourself what you want to person visiting this landing page to do the most then construct the page according to that. Like, it you want them to download that ebook, you better than a link to the download.
Review Your Results Often
No, this doesn’t mean “every single day.” You will never be able to connect the dots if you find yourself glued to the numbers on your results page. Rather, wait for the analytics to accumulate enough data for you to figure out trends and patterns. From there, you can rehash your budget, create or end campaigns, and figure out a course of action. The best way to track results is to do it weekly and monthly, adding the numbers into a spreadsheet for quick review.
Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy when utilizing PPC. However, there are certain rules and guidelines that you need to adhere to in order to see the optimal results for your campaign. Without properly researching your keywords, knowing where you want to advertise, and how well the ads are actually performing, you will not have that great of ROI. So be sure to learn how PPC advertising will work for you then go from there.
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