8 PPC Marketing Practices for Beginners that Will Change Your Marketing Scene

So, when was the last time you went to page 2 of the search results? The answer is easy – NEVER! That is as true as death. Whenever you look for anything online, you stick only to SERP 1 and to the top results for that matter. The same is true for your PPC campaign also.

If you are trying to promote your business online, it only makes sense to be on the top. Millions of businesses promote their products and services online. To be able to stand out among such a big crowd, some plain vanilla marketing won’t do. PPC marketing is just about that – to make you stand out of the crowd that needs to see you.

However, not every marketer is a pro at PPC marketing. But, to be on the top of the game, you need to begin with some basic but important rules that even the best PPC marketing agency would follow. So, here are 8 PPC marketing practices that will change your marketing scene.

1. Get a Grasp on What PPC is and How It Works

When you look up anything in a search engine, the results that appear as sponsored links in the most noticeable areas of the search engines are nothing but pay-per-per click advertisements. These ads usually appear at the top and right sidebar of the SERP. They work via bidding for keywords against other businesses. You need to pay only when someone clicks on these links.

The entire game depends on the relevant keyword or key phrase; the more relevant it is the higher up you will appear. You set up ads including the right keyword/phrase and they will show high enough as long as your bids are high to pay for the impressions to appear. Conclusion – the higher your bid, the higher your ad appears, the higher will the click-volume be. The benefit is that of attracting traffic instantly.

Take some time and hands-on experience to know what PPC advertising is all about. Once you have the grasp of how it works, the rest becomes easier.

2. Set a Goal Before You Go Forth

It is one thing to research something and another to implement the knowledge thus gained. But, even before you head to implement it, you must know why you are doing it. To know your goal, is half the battle won. You need to focus on your goal – what is it that you want – more traffic for your website, escalated product/services sales, newsletter subscription, or sign up? This will lead you to find and bid for keywords that are apt for the advert.

3. Pick a Platform

Three most popular search engines – Google, Yahoo and Bing – have now been joined by another superbly popular one – Facebook. You will need to make your choice according to what your target audience is (demographics and location involved). As far as search volume is concerned, Google stays at the top, but you will end up paying a lot. Yahoo! and Bing offer a lower average cost per click, but almost the same search volume as Google. Each has advantages and disadvantages that you will need to study in the context of your finances. Facebook offers a very large number of users though users do not search over it. Usually, a mix of adverts in various platforms is what works well.

4. Keywords are the Key

We recommend that you put in a lot of effort here. The keywords that you invest in must be those which the consumer is likely to type into the search engines when looking for the product/service that you offer. Don’t be too general. Suppose if you are selling furniture, you could aim for “buy home furniture” “buy office furniture”, etc. It is just an example though. The idea is to conduct a thorough keyword research. And, don’t rule out the abbreviations or even grammatically and syntactically incorrect things that users type in for searches.

5. Decide on a Budget

Some reverse engineering skills will go into this. To decide how much investment you should make in PPC marketing, you must first see how much return on investment you are expecting from your sales and marketing budget. First, see the total budget that has been allotted to marketing and then decide how much of it should be devoted to PPC advertising. Also take into consideration, the price of the bids on keywords before deciding how much to spend.

6. Create an Effective Ad Copy

The small but effective text that accompanies your website link is of the essence. The ad copy, per se, should compel the user to take action. Just because your ad appears on the search engine doesn’t mean you get clicks. The ad title and description are two factors that will actually get you clicks. Optimize these as well as the display URL with the keywords that you have bid for. Targeted ad groups come in handy for this very reason. Create several ads at a time, review the performance, take off the ones that do not work, and allot the budget to new ones.

7. Let the User Land at the Landing Page

So, your PPC ad campaign aims at getting sign-ups but where your URL leads the user is to the home page. What a waste it would be when the potential customer will not go any further than the home page and just steer away from the link. So, in your ad copy, provide the URL of the right landing page, i.e., the link which the ad is for; the sign-up form in this case.

8. Keep the Testing Consistent

There is no sure shot way to succeed with a PPC advert. There needs to be continuous testing with keywords, budget, ad copies and marketing approaches. However, the aim of PPC marketing doesn’t end at getting more clicks. The aim is to get you more sales, sign-ups or subscriptions as you want it. For that, continuous tracking, testing and optimization need to be done constantly and consistently. Tools such as Google Analytics let you tack how your ads are doing and what actions (clicks, browsing, and interaction) they are eliciting from users. It is only then you will be able to churn out the ROI that you have been expecting.

Stay tuned for more of best PPC practices.