Five Tips for Running a Successful PPC Campaign

I wish I had the secret sauce that would guarantee every advertiser in the world a successful paid search campaign. Despite my knowledge (and good looks) I can’t offer that secret sauce because it doesn’t exist. Every advertiser, vertical, industry is unique within the paid search realm and thus they need to have strategies tailored to their specific needs. With all that being said, I can offer some general tips and tricks to help you find success with paid search. The below tips are in no order of importance, it’s simply the order they came to my brain.

Tip #1: Choose keywords wisely

When deciding on what keywords to include in your search campaigns, it is important to understand the audience you are trying to talk to. Understanding what keywords they are using to seek out information is extremely important. Additionally, it is important to not bid on keywords that are not relevant to your brand. Let’s look at an example for a local shoe store. A smart choice for a keyword would be “shoe store in kansas city.” A less relevant keyword would be “all shoe stores in the united states.” Now, your shoe store website could potentially offer the user information they are looking for, but probably not and realistically that keyword would be very expensive. Keywords are the foundation of your campaign—it is the query that will eventually lead users to your brand. Choose wisely.

Tip #2: Write awesome ad copy

Ad copy is the answer to a user’s query. It is the first exposure a user has to your brand. You want to make sure you make a good first impression. Make sure your ad copy answers the query and offers engaging and relevant content. Don’t fall prey to gimmicky phrases like “Best Deal Yet.” Make sure you have a strong Call to Action in the copy and you can deliver on whatever you promise in the ad copy.

Tip #3: Send them to the right place

When deciding what landing page to use for a search campaign, choose carefully. Make sure that whatever you are promising the user in the ad copy, your landing page is delivering on. Google wants users to have the best experience possible, and that includes the pages ads are sending them to. Google checks to see that the page is relevant, not spam and loading in a reasonable amount of time. So if you are running a campaign for a cardiology clinic, send to the cardiology landing page, not the homepage. Relevancy is key!

Tip #4: Stake out your real estate

Search providers offer a wide variety of extensions to your ad copy. Extensions are varied and most advertisers have content that can fulfill them. You can do a review, sitelink, location, callout or even a shopping extension. These extensions are important for two reasons: 1) You can send a user to a deeper more relevant page than they even knew to look for e.g. you search for a hotel brand name and they offer a site link to hotel locations page. 2) They simply take up more real estate. This potentially bumps a competitor down in rankings and you get more visibility to the consumer.

Tip #5: Don’t be afraid to test

Search is a great place to test. Test landing pages, test ad copy, test promotional deals. Just test. It is extremely turnkey to try out messaging or landing page updates so this is a great place to try out the latest CTA. Many times if a deal works out well in a paid search ad, you can see success in a banner ad. Additionally, the financial investment in paid search can certainly be minimal and managed so there won’t be a huge financial risk in testing a new form of messaging or offer.

Learn more about how we do paid search here at MBB.