Looking to improve the return on investment for your PPC campaigns?
No PPC strategy can exist over the long term if it does not draw value from every penny that is invested in it. Unless your campaign is generating profit, it is doomed to failure.
Here are five strategies that you should seriously consider testing.
1. Start Low and Never Change Bids in Fewer Than 15 Days
Despite the likes of Google Ads saying it takes two days, (your ads say “Learning” next to them), it actually takes most systems at least two keywords to normalize your ad dissemination and create a fair/even flow of clicks per bid price you pay.
True and accurately measurable results cannot be seen unless your ads have been running for two weeks. Those who are just learning about PPC strategies, performance marketing, and PPC testing will understand that you probably see no clicks for a while. Suddenly, then, a great many clicks are recorded and suddenly your daily budget has been exhausted.
2. Set Up New Ads Before Taking Suggested Keywords
This sounds like a very silly hassle, but you should not add suggested keywords to your ads. You should set up duplicate ads and put the suggested keywords in those. There is a very strong reason for this, and it is that the affiliate network (especially Google Ads) tries to direct your keywords and your advertising behavior so that you compete for their most valuable keywords.
If your duplicate ad does better than your original after a month, then reassess your keywords and remove either the new (duplicate) ad or the original. Again, it is a big hassle, especially if you have many ads, but it is the only way of guaranteeing you are getting the best value for your money.
3. Only Use Ad Extensions for Branding
Maybe the word “only” is a little unfair, but in most cases, ad extensions are not needed. In fact, they may actually harm your online marketing success.
For example, seeing the name of your website may put a clicker off, especially when the clicker thinks they have already visited or dismissed your company. If you are unsure, then run parallel tests using extensions to check to see if they help or harm your success.
4. Use Negative Keywords
An article for Entrepreneur.com that was published by Fox News offered some very testable advice that may prove that negative keywords may be the defining factor in how much money your marketing budget will save. Put simply, it is possible to save massive amounts of money by picking your negative keywords almost as carefully as you pick your regular keywords.
As your own tests will prove, you can use traditional negative keywords to guard against irrelevant queries. You can also use “protective use” negative keywords to direct people to the right ad.
If correctly applied, you can make it so that people searching out a specific product of yours will see a vastly different ad to those who are making general searches or searches for your company or searches for your competitors. Put to proper use, it enables you to funnel your clickers to whichever content will affect them the most.
5. Judge Your PPC Strategy by Conversions
Affiliate networks have interfaces that clearly show you how successful your ads are, and even though this is important, it is misleading. It may show that your ads are getting clicks and that you are penetrating the correct markets, but it is your conversions that count. That is why the success of your pay per click strategy should rest on how many sales you make, subscriptions you sell, etc.
In short, it is possible to do everything right with regards to your pay per click marketing strategy, and yet still make no money or impact through your campaign.
Trust Your Testing
Experience is the best teacher when it comes to creating the best PPC strategy. It is just important that you do not put too much faith in the affiliate network itself, especially with regards to its suggestions.
Remember that it has profit in mind, it does not have your interests at heart. Their job is to help you, but it is also their job to draw as much profit from you as they can. If you are looking for further ways to improve your marketing skills, then you should keep browsing the other blog posts here on our site.