9 Best PPC Practices for Beginners

Pay Per Click or PPC is an online marketing technique to generate better traffic to one’s website. Basically when an Internet user clicks on the website thereby entering into it, you pay a pre-assigned sum of money to the search engine. This is one way of getting more clicks to your website rather than earning it organically. Though it may seem to be a costly venture, a well-thought-out PPC campaign with the help of a PPC marketing agency can be very fruitful to your business.

Let’s discuss some of the best PPC practices.

1. Separate Search and Display Campaigns

There are basically two ad campaign types on search engines. One is search campaigns and the other is display campaigns. Based on the concept of a pull system, search network campaigns are the most widely used campaigns on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing as they generate higher conversion rates. Search campaigns allow you to get people who are looking for the type of products and services you are offering. The fact that they are the most accurate also makes them one of the most expensive ad types on search engines. On the other hand, in display networks, the keywords are taken from your ad groups and set with the same keywords using websites allowing you to target your customer base that are looking for relevant information regarding your type of products and services. It’s very important to keep the search and display network separately. Combining them means having more general keywords which may enhance the traffic and click through rate, but it will keep the conversion rate low. Also since display network bids are lower, keep both of them together can risk you of over expenditure.

2. Keywords

Keywords that are used to attract customers through clicks can be of four types: broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match and exact match. It is advisable to utilize limited broad match keywords since it reduces the percentage of highly relevant site traffic that you get from PPC campaigns while eating up your daily budget. Medium to large businesses normally hire a Pay per click marketing firm as they focus more on quality than on quantity. They use sophisticated techniques to ensure you cover only those search landscapes which are needed for your business.

3. Keyword Research

The success of a PPC campaign is entirely dependent on the choice of your keywords. It’s critical to modify the keywords list from time to time since new search terms get added periodically on search engines. Researching for keywords only during your first PPC campaign can cost you dearly as you can lose out on a countless number of long-tailed, low cost and relevant keywords that have the capability to enhance your website traffic. While making your keywords list, you must make sure your keyword list is relevant, exhaustive and expensive. If time is on your side then you can do the keyword research for yourself otherwise it’s better to employ a PPC marketing agency.

4. Use negative keywords

Negative keywords are those keywords that prevent your ads from popping up when certain words or phrases are searched. For example, if your business is only providing rental services then when you add negative keywords like buy or free in your ad group you command AdWords to not show your ad when anyone searches anything with free or buy attached to it. Negative keywords greatly reduce the number of irrelevant clicks. Like normal keywords, negative keywords are also classified into broad, phrase and exact type.

5. Ad Extensions

Ad extensions help to distinguish your add from the rest of the search result. Some of the important ad extensions are site link extensions, callout extensions, call extensions, location extensions and review extensions. These extensions can be used to enhance your ad and help you to attach additional information with your ads like address, phone number, store rating or even additional web page links. Ad extensions can not only boost your CTR by making your ad more prominent but also can improve your quality score.

6. Link to A Relevant Landing Page

Google is extremely strict on the quality of landing pages while determining the quality score for your ad. A landing page is a webpage where a user is directed to when he or she clicks on the ad. If you want the visitor to sign up or read your blogs without much ado then it is important that you send them to the relevant page right away. Users may get frustrated if the landing page is irrelevant or having poor content. A properly optimized landing page must have all the relevant information regarding your product along with a call to action options like sign up, buy, subscribe, etc.

7. Track Conversions

You will be left in the dark about the performance of your PPC campaign if you don’t evaluate its performance periodically. To do this you can turn on the conversion tracking to view exactly which ads and keywords are working, that is, helping you to get visitors for your website. If you are giving ads on the Google search engine then you must use Google analytics to monitor the effectiveness of your PPC campaign. Parameters like bounce rate of your website, CTR and conversion rate of your campaign should be analyzed.

8. Campaign Settings

Make sure you have the right kind of settings for your PPC campaign. These will include rotating multiple ads from time to time to distribute traffic evenly across various ad variations. If you have the data about the hours, days or months when you receive the most traffic then you should tune up your advertising schedule such that those ads are shown only during that period. You can also use bid modifiers to utilize your budget more effectively.

9. Managing PPC campaigns

Managing your PPC campaign regularly is the key for a successful PPC campaign. You must continuously analyze and review the performance of your PPC campaign. Some of the adjustments which you can make are adding keywords and also negative keywords. Review the costly keywords that are underperforming in order to bring down your budget. You can also split your ad groups to smaller relevant ones to create more targeted ad text and landing pages. Keep on refining and optimizing the landing pages from time to time to improve the conversion rates. It is also advisable to check your PPC campaigns from different devices and adjust your bidding according to the performance on every device.

These are some of the practices for your PPC campaign if you are starting out for the first time. The success of a PPC campaign is only determined by the amount of return on investment. Effective PPC campaign is a continuous process of research, review and redevelopment. If you want to be on the safe side then you can always take help of a PPC marketing agency who will help you to invest wisely in your campaigns. They do a detailed analysis of your business, the industry sector and also your competitors and then work out a strategy to deliver the result you want. The strategy is basically to increase visibility, study customer activities and improve conversion rates in order for you to have a successful, thriving business.