Pay-per-click (PPC) search advertising can be a valuable complement to any organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, especially companies wishing to make an immediate impact on their marketing-to-sales funnel. We often recommend a hybrid approach to digital marketing strategy that balances the instant gratification offered by PPC with the long-term value of organic SEO.
Google and other top search engines dedicate prime real estate on their search engine result pages (SERPs) to paid advertisements. Unlike organic search results (the free results)—which take time and expertise by performing SEO—paid search ads can be set up and started relatively quickly and boost brand awareness.
Our strategic approach to PPC management
You want the most bang for your buck, and that requires the expert help of a search advertising agency. We’ll work with you to determine your goals, then optimize your campaigns to improve factors like Quality Score, keywords, ad copy, PPC bidding, and more.
To manage your PPC campaigns, we’ll:
- Assess your goals and define your audience
- Review your industry and your competitors
- Research keywords to target the right audience
- Create landing pages to capture the interest of your audience
- Determine and/or create the PPC offer (ex. free download, free trial, whitepaper, etc.)
- Manage negative keywords to ensure you’re not wasting clicks on the wrong keywords
- Continually monitor, conduct A/B testing, adjust and optimize your campaigns
Daily doses of coffee and metrics
We love analyzing hard numbers. One often-overlooked metric that can reduce wasteful spending is your Quality Score in Google Ads. Quality Score is a measure of the quality of your paid keyword in relationship to your ad and landing page. Higher Quality Scores are rewarded with higher ad positions for a lower price.
Let’s say you want to advertise for the term men’s shoes, but the page you want to send visitors to is all about men’s shirts. Given the fact that most people searching for men’s shoes are looking for men’s shoes, your ad and landing page for men’s shirts wouldn’t be the highest quality for the searcher’s intent. Google requires you pay more per click in order to rank alongside other ads that are more on target. To prevent overpaying, we try to break your campaign down into groups of keywords, ads, and landing pages that improve your Quality Scores, lower your costs, and increase clicks.
As we get your campaigns optimized, the success or failure of each becomes more of a statistical math problem:
1,000 clicks > 100 leads > 20 qualified prospects > 5 new customers
When your campaign is optimized around a digital marketing funnel like this, the results become more predictable. In theory, you should then spend as much as possible on PPC advertising until your new customers reach critical mass. This is where PPC management done right pays for itself.
Is PPC advertising right for your business?
Pay-per-click advertising can be an incredibly valuable tool for many businesses. Among its many benefits:
- Getting your ads up and running quickly
- Paying only when someone clicks your ad
- Gaining brand recognition even if your ads aren’t clicked
This doesn’t mean pay-per-click is right for everyone. Contact us if you’d like to discuss the pros and cons of paid search and whether PPC management is right for your digital marketing strategy.
