Pay per click advertising (or PPC for short) on platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising can be a great way to signpost people to your website and encourage them to buy your product or service. According to Google, every $1 spent on Google Ads generates $8 worth of income!
However, there is more to PPC search engine campaigns than choosing the keywords you want to show up for, determining your budget and crossing your fingers to hope for the best.
Here are our three top tips that will help ensure you create engaging campaigns that will convert, as well as provide the best return on your investment.
Review your ad copy
You can have the most intuitive keywords in the world, but if your ad copy is lacking, people will not click on your ads and go to your website.
You need to create engaging content that appeals to your customers. Showcase the things that make your business unique and try to include your keywords to make your ad as relevant as possible. Utilize extensions to provide additional information about your business, and try out several different variations of your ads to see which one is the most successful.
Even if your ad is not the number one result on your search engine of choice, taking the time to write your ads will help grow your clickthrough rate and encourage your customers to visit your site.
Keep your ad groups small and targeted
You may think it is easier to manage your ads account if you have all of your search terms in one large ad group, but smaller ad groups will help increase the likelihood of customers clicking on your ads.
Smaller ad groups mean you can target your ad wording and landing pages to a more specific audience, meaning you are likely to pay less for your keywords and won't see money wasted on irrelevant clicks.
If you have time, Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) can be a great strategy. This is when you only have one keyword variant per ad group, and studies have shown it can increase your clickthrough rate by up to 14%!
Make sure customers stay on your website
You've got your potential customers to click on your ad and visit your website. You may think the hard work is over, but you need to ensure customers stay on your website and convert.
Prospective customers that visit your website and immediately leave provide a negative ranking signal to your PPC platform of choice, meaning the platform is likely to charge you more in the future or even stop serving your ads entirely.
This means you need to ensure the best experience when customers click on your ads and visit your site.
Take a look at the page your ad takes customers to. Is the content easy to understand? Does your page load as quickly as possible? Is there a strong call to action? Put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about what they want to see when they visit your site.