5 Steps to Pay Per Click Advertising

You have probably heard that a Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaign can be an incredible return on investment for your business. When you use pay per click ads as a sponsored ad in search engine results or if you display them across the Google Display Network, you are able to gain incredible brand exposure, and only have to pay for the ad when a prospect clicks on it.

In this two part article, we will go over the 5 practices that will help you earn the most out of your pay per click campaign. This section covers organizing your campaign, maintaining consistency, and the benefit of adding a phone number to your ad.

Let’s get this ball rolling…

1.) Build Well-Organized Campaigns

A winning pay per click campaign takes a good amount of organization and dedication. There are plenty of factors that you must consider about how you display your ads to prospects. If you want to get the best results out of PPC, then you have to be diligent when organizing and planning your ads and the keywords used for them.

Here’s what you have to do…

Figure out what your best keywords are and then split them up into specific ad groups that only have a few keywords in each. By doing this, you will be able to customize your ads based on your keyword groups, which you can show to only the prospects who are searching for those keywords.

For instance, a landscaping company can make a group of keywords like “lawn care,” “lawn mowing service,” or “landscaping services.” A second group of keywords would include “landscape design” or “landscaping improvements.” Each group is targeting a different service. The first group wants normal lawn care while the second group wants their lawn renovated. This landscaping company can do both services, but by designing two separate ads, they are able to target two separate prospect groups.

Doing this will…

• Place you in front of relevant prospects
• Boost your click-through rate. When someone sees the keyword they just searched for in your ad, they will likely click on it.

These two benefits will raise your Quality Score. The better your Quality Score, your ad will cost less and have an ideal position when displayed.

By grouping your ads and keywords, you can space out your target criteria into different campaigns and ad groupings. When you can be this specialized, your campaigns are much easier to manage, and each one can be tailored towards specific prospects. You will achieve much better results when you can target prospect groups with keywords that they are relevant to their search.

2.) Maintain Consistency Between Ad and Landing Page

How do you earn a high Quality Score?

The best technique to improving your Quality Score and converting the most prospects into customers is by maintaining consistency between your ads and landing pages (the webpage where your ad directs prospects who click on it).

By having a higher Quality Score, your ad will have better positioning and cost you less every time someone clicks it. Those are two of the biggest wins in PPC marketing. Ad positioning is a competition for the best location your ad will be displayed on a website. If your Quality Score isn’t very high, someone who has a higher one will have their ad displayed instead of you. I think all business owners know the benefits of being charged less for their campaign, right? Everyone wants a lower cost since it means a better return on investment for the campaign!

If a prospect clicks on an ad and is taken to a landing page that does not match the ad they saw in either design and/or content, a few things can happen…

• They think that they have been taken to the wrong page, and leave without looking at the website.
• They think that the ad tricked them into visiting another page and then leave right away, not trusting the company. They are less likely to click on your ads the next time they are displayed to them.
• They think your company isn’t organized and are less likely to buy from you even if they do like what you offer in your landing page.

You want a streamlined process from the first time your ad is seen all the way to the sale. Every step of the way should engage the prospect and bring them closer to your company. The best way to do this is by designing your landings pages to resemble your display ads. Your landing page should be a continuation of the message your ad displayed, and fulfil the claim or offer you had in your ad. For example, if your ad promises a special offer, once the prospect clicks that and arrives at your landing page, they should see content on how to redeem that offer.

When your ad and landing page have a consistent design and message, your company…

• Appears professional and organized
• Holds the connection made by the ad all the way to the end of the sale
• Generates credibility and trust by providing what was promised in the ad that brought them there.

Google understands the importance of the relationship between a landing page and a PPC ad, and they will adjust the Quality Score based on how consistent landing pages are with ads in both message and look. Don’t think that you can just ignore this. It has a huge impact on how successful your PPC campaign will be.

3.) Add Large Phone Numbers to Your Banner Ads

This is effective for one reason. Regardless of the increasing trend of online product research, there are still people who would rather call to find out more information of your product or service. You can give these prospects what they want by adding your phone number on your display ads in a large, easy to read font. This will provide your prospects with multiple ways they could reach out to you, by clicking OR calling, which will give your company more chances to turn them into a customer. The best part of providing a phone number on your display ad is that it can possibly generate a FREE lead since you only have to pay for leads that are generated through a click, not a call.

In the following article we will discuss the last two steps to creating a stellar pay per click campaign. These include setting your ad’s display hours and all about ad extensions to boost sales. You won’t want to miss these important elements!