PPC marketing is a proven way to get fast results. But just like any other strategy, it needs regular tweaking, updating, and optimizing.
Here, you’ll find:
Why Google Ads isn’t the only pay-per-click (PPC) player in town
Why manual bidding is worth your attention
Ways to optimize your PPC ads in 2020
What Core Web Vitals are and why they matter
We like to say that digital marketing is part art, part science. Sure, there are guidelines and processes and steps, but without a heavy dose of creativity, your program isn’t likely to shine.
Well-versed paid search marketers know this. They also know that experimentation, analysis, and optimization are key components to creating a PPC strategy that isn’t just successful, but lasting too.
Behaviors, competitors, and algorithms change fast. To stay on top of your game, you have to catch on before someone else does. Let these PPC optimization strategies guide your paid search efforts for the rest of the year — and beyond.
1. Switch to manual bidding
No matter how stellar your PPC ads are, they won’t achieve proper results without the right bidding strategy. The tactic you choose for your bids depends on your campaign goals.
If you want to achieve the largest number of clicks according to the set budget, you can use the traditional automatic cost-per-click (CPC) bidding system.
However, allowing Google to do the job for you comes with a couple of downsides. One of them is lack of an easy way to adjust your campaign if it’s not performing properly. Manual bidding can fix this problem. This hands-on, more customized bidding approach:
Increases ad visibility
Lowers your cost per action (CPA)
Allows you to prioritize keywords that convert better
Switching from automatic to manual bidding is an advanced strategy that requires paying close attention to tactics such as:
Focus on one campaign at a time since the process can be time-consuming
Lower your bids for keywords that receive solid impressions but don’t generate sales
Increase bids for keywords that convert to increase the position of ads containing them and generate more conversions
Choose the default bid, which is close to the average CPC in your automatic campaigns
When you leverage manual bidding, it’s a good idea to run the manual campaign for a couple of weeks to see if it achieves the goal of lowering CPC and generating sales. If the process seems like too much, partnering with a well-rounded PPC agency might be the right solution for you.
Creating an ad group that consists of people who have already visited your landing pages can be the key to improving your conversion rate. (Image via Unsplash)
2. Take advantage of remarketing
Research shows that only about 2% of potential customers convert on their first visit. Does that mean you’re wasting your money on PPC ads? Of course not. You just have to boost their success by pairing them with remarketing (or retargeting) campaigns.
This process involves using ads to follow potential clients who have already clicked your ads once or visited your site. Placing your ad in front of them serves as a tasteful reminder of the action they may have wanted to take on your website.
Google Ads allows you to segment your remarketing lists to show ads to visitors based on their needs and the landing page the initial PPC ad brought them to. Creating an ad group that consists of people who have already visited your landing pages can be the key to improving your conversion rate.
3. Explore Microsoft Ads
Google Ads is an unmistakable leader in the PPC marketing realm. But that doesn’t mean others in the space aren’t worth exploring. For some companies, using Microsoft Advertising can be just the solution they’ve been waiting for. What’s more, you could potentially see more success with Microsoft Ads, depending on your industry, as there’s often less competition on these platforms.
But simply importing a campaign over from Google Ads and forgetting about it means missing highly useful tools other ad platforms have to offer. For example, Microsoft advertising has:
Action extensions: add CTA buttons near your ad that link to the landing page of your choice
Review extensions: feature reviews from third-party sites below your ad
LinkedIn targeting: view the reactions of the LinkedIn audience to your ads for further adjustments
Competition insight: see how your visibility compares to competition, which shows up for the same search queries
4. Pay attention to Amazon Ads
Another PPC optimization opportunity is Amazon Ads. While the audience covered by Google, Microsoft, and Facebook Ads is huge, those who see your ad on those platforms aren’t necessarily in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey.
Amazon audiences, on the other hand, are geared toward spending money. People who visit this shopping giant are likely ready to buy, which increases your chances of conversion tremendously.
These are the types of sponsored Amazon ads at your disposal:
Products: keyword-targeted ads that allow you to promote a certain product
Brands: help promote the brand while including up to three products in the ad — the users are directed to the Stores page or custom landing page on Amazon
Display ads: send those who click to Amazon product detail pages, a custom landing page on Amazon, or an external website
Plus, you don’t need to sell your products on Amazon to take advantage of this advertising option.
Pro tip:The average CPC on Amazon typically ranges between $0.02 and $3.
Core Web Vitals show how good of user experience you should aim to offer your visitors. (Image via Unsplash)
5. Take advantage of responsive search ads
After first appearing in 2019, Responsive Search Ads quickly gained tremendous popularity. That’s partly because these ads allow you to create four headlines and fifteen different descriptions for your ad. Google then tests various combinations of these elements and selects those that perform best depending on:
Keywords searched for
Devices used
Browsing behavior
And more
Responsive ads save time and money on A/B testing while allowing you to reach your target audience faster.
Want to learn more about optimizing your PPC campaign in 2020? Let’s talk.
6. Optimize your website
Your PPC campaign results can fall far below expectations if you don’t optimize your website to welcome your target audience once they arrive there. In 2021, Google has said they will consider Core Web Vitals when determining the ranking of your pages. These vitals include:
Loading performance: the page should load in under 2.5 seconds
Visual stability: the page’s elements shouldn’t move when the user is reading the text (it usually happens when a piece of media loads), forcing the visitor to search for their lost place
Interactivity: the time between the visitor taking action (like clicking a button or tab) and the website responding should be under 100 milliseconds
Core Web Vitals show how good of user experience you should aim to offer your visitors. Improving them won’t just improve search engine optimization efforts, but it’ll also help your PPC ad clickers actually convert.
The takeaway
PPC optimization is an ongoing process. And with multiple new options and updates happening every year, it’s nearly impossible to thrive without analyzing regularly so you can keep enhancing your strategies.
At the end of the day, the best PPC ads are clear, consistent, targeted to the right audience, and follow through on what they offer.
Sam Yadegar
Sam Yadegar is the co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM. Starting out as a software engineer, his penchant for solving problems quickly led him to the digital marketing world, where he has been helping clients for over 12 years. He loves doing everything he can to help brands "crush it" through ROI-driven digital marketing programs. He's also a fan of basketball and spending time with his family.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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From creating your account to optimizing and testing, these expert tips will ensure your e-commerce PPC ads are set up to stand out.
Here, you’ll find:
How to create a proper PPC ad foundation
Tips for keeping campaigns organized
Ways to optimize your e-commerce PPC ads
What to test when it comes to your campaigns
People are buying almost everything online these days. Whether you’ve been doing e-commerce for years or have recently switched to a digital platform amid the pandemic, it’s always good to know what elements make up a successful search engine marketing (SEM) ad.
Let’s break down the must-haves when it comes to creating paid search ads for your e-commerce brand.
How you get your products into Google Merchant Center to create the feed mostly depends on how many products you have. (Image via Rawpixel)
1. Set a good foundation
It should come as no surprise that proper setup is key to creating successful e-commerce PPC ads. But that doesn’t mean that plenty of companies, whether they realize it or not, don’t have their accounts set up properly — which can lead to improper tracking and unnecessary steps. So, how do you ensure you’re starting off on the right foot?
To begin, you need to create a free Google Merchant Center (GMC) account. It’s best to use the same email you also use for programs like Google Ads and Google Analytics. That way, your accounts will all be linked together. From there, you can link your Google Ads account to GMC. It’s also a good idea to install “Ecommerce tracking” in your Google Analytics account for even more insight into performance metrics.
2. Stay on top of your product feed
How you get your products into GMC to create the feed mostly depends on how many products you have. If you have a large amount, you can integrate your e-commerce platform with the merchant center. If you have fewer products, you can integrate manually via a Google spreadsheet or even add products one by one.
Making sure your product feed is updated is just as crucial as proper setup. After all, the last thing you want is to have someone click on your ad and see that the item is out of stock or priced higher than advertised.
Once you input products, they’ll remain active for 30 days. After that, those products will expire if you don’t update their info. You can update your products either by reprocessing your feed or setting up automatic processing on a daily or weekly basis, depending on how often your product inventory changes.
3. Get granular
Why is getting granular so important? Because the more specific a product search is, the higher the purchase intent, most likely. Therefore, the more you segment out your products, the more targeted your PPC ads will be.
If you have a small number of products, each product can be in its own product group. Otherwise, you can split your campaign into ad groups, and then split those into product groups from there.
You can also divide in other ways, like by devices. Simply put a -100% bid adjustment to separate desktop and mobile. For your desktop campaign, you’d put in a -100% bid adjustment on mobile to show only on desktop, and vice versa. You can also separate out traffic based on how specific the search is. You can do this by setting up campaign priorities and then using negative keywords to separate those searches.
Including prices in your ads can be a highly effective way to get more clicks than your competition. (Image via Rawpixel)
4. Remember to optimize
Without optimizing, your PPC campaign can only go so far. Optimizing will help you better manage your budget by putting more spend where you’re seeing more success. Many e-commerce companies optimize their bids by starting low, then adjusting accordingly. The more data you gather, the more informed your decisions will be.
Other ways to optimize include:
Experiment with different ad types (like product listing ads vs. text ads)
Leverage ad extensions to give ads more context
Add pricing to ads for a competitive edge
Test different campaign structures and categories
5. Consider including prices in ads
Speaking of pricing, including prices in your ads can be a highly effective way to get more clicks than your competition. Not only is this another way to qualify your traffic to ensure you get the right clicks, but it doesn’t take up a ton of valuable ad real estate.
As HubSpot explains, “This saves your ad spend for those qualified leads who saw your prices, know what to expect, might not be scared away by price, and are much more likely to convert into a sale.”
Even if they don’t end up buying your product or service, you’ll have a higher chance of snagging them through remarketing, since they already know what your pricing looks like.
6. Test your ads — consistently
If you’ve read our past articles, we might sound like a broken record when we talk about the benefits of testing. But it can’t be denied that, if you want high-performing e-commerce PPC ads, testing repeatedly is an important step.
With e-commerce ads, you can A/B test elements like your imagery, verbiage, call to action (CTA), and more. After all, what works on your paid social media campaign might be a flop when it comes to SEM. See how a flat-lay image of an item on a white background performs against an image of a real-life scenario.
Pro tip:The best testing comes with an open mind. You may think you know what your target audience wants, but the results could end up surprising you.
7. Leverage remarketing
Ah, yes, remarketing — otherwise known as “those ads that follow you around the internet,” as your friends or family may describe them. But the fact remains that remarketing works, particularly for cart abandoners.
While remarketing (also called retargeting) can be effective in various industries, it’s particularly useful for e-commerce. It can help you land more recurring sales, increase your campaign’s clickthrough rate (CTR), boost your ROI, and more.
As we’ve mentioned before, setting up e-commerce remarketing often requires adding certain code to your site and making sure your GMC account is set up and running properly.
Amazon operates like a search engine in many ways, with ad types and structures similar to traditional paid search campaigns. (Image via Rawpixel)
8. Think outside of Google
It makes sense that, when you think of e-commerce PPC, you automatically think of Google. And while it’s holding strong in its place as the top global search engine, it’s not the only one worth looking into.
Microsoft’s search engine Bing has a user base that searches nearly 6 billion times a month total. Its own ad platform, Microsoft Ads, encompasses advertising on Bing as well as Yahoo and AOL.
Depending on your e-commerce product, you could see less competition on Bing that you’d see on Google, and a potentially cheaper cost per click (CPC). Not only that, but Microsoft Ads has a simple process for exporting existing Google Ads campaigns into its own platform, making it easy for you to leverage both.
Pro tip: Think Amazon Advertising isn’t related to PPC? Think again. Amazon operates like a search engine in many ways, with ad types and structures similar to traditional paid search campaigns.
The takeaway
Whether your e-commerce business has tons of competition or not, you’ve still got to work to make your PPC ads stand out.
Use the tips above when creating, optimizing, and testing your paid search campaigns to keep your digital marketing strategy going strong.
Caroline is HawkSEM's content marketing manager. She uses her more than 10 years of professional writing and editing experience to create SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of seltzer water, print magazines, and huskies.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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Companies all over the world have to adjust to the new reality — which could mean rethinking current search engine marketing (SEM) strategies.
Here, you’ll find:
How SEM has changed in 2020
Ideas for adjusting your campaign
New industry trends and developments
Common campaign mistakes to avoid
The good news: with so much uncertainty about the future right now, search engine marketing is still worth leveraging. By making just a few tweaks, you can set up your SEM campaigns to succeed, no matter if the business climate is rocky or smooth sailing.
Changes to consider
Before adjusting your SEM strategy, you need to pinpoint what has changed about your target audience’s psychology and behavior, if anything.
Lower purchasing power – many consumers are experiencing a decrease in income and a shift in priorities, so purchasing power is dropping
Higher learning potential – with more time available, people are doing more research online, looking for educational materials, taking courses, and watching webinars
Demand for better digital interaction – consumers are spending more time at home and demand more convenience from remote service providers
Change of focus – consumers are shifting their focus to products of prime necessity
Remote operation – the majority of companies are moving their business online, increasing digital sales, and providing remote support
Lower costs – due to the decrease in demand, the cost per click (CPC) for paid search ads has dropped
Be it your next blog article or an Instagram ad, you need to remove the filler. (Image via Unsplash)
What hasn’t changed is the need to promote your products and services. Experts say it’s OK to market your business during these times, as long as you lead with empathy, transparency, and with your customers’ current needs in mind.
Since search engine marketing is an ongoing process, stopping it today may mean starting from scratch tomorrow. Adapting your promotional tactics to the new pain points and needs of the target audience is the key to your company’s success for the rest of 2020 and beyond.
1. Focus on content clarity
Be it your next blog article or an Instagram ad, you need to remove the filler. In 2020, consumers are spending more time online, which often means being bombarded by a ton of information. Because of this, they’re becoming more and more experienced in telling valuable information apart from thinly-veiled sales content.
Google is also adjusting its algorithms to the new reality (as of its May 2020 core update) trying to focus on clarity. Here are some ways you can keep in the search engine’s good graces:
Focus on the readability of your content
Keep anything related to traveling or large gatherings out of your content
Don’t make any promises or wild predictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Focus on what you offer and how you follow through for your customers
Adjust your CTAs according to the latest developments (i.e. “visit our store” and “let’s meet” are rarely relevant these days)
2. Reevaluate your SEM campaign budget
Since the demand for products has shifted more towards essential goods in 2020, it may be a good idea to reevaluate your PPC campaign budget. With the average CPC dropping by 50% across the board, it’s an excellent time to redirect the budget to top performing SEM campaigns.
A good plan of action: Single out the highest performing ads and keywords, then channel more of your PPC budget to support them. To pace your campaign spend better, you may consider such settings as lifetime spend or monthly spend limits instead of daily budgets.
3. Beef up your educational content
As far as content types go, you can’t get much better than articles and other materials that aim to educate your audience. People love this kind of content because it provides a service and (ideally) helps them solve a problem or glean new information without having to make a purchase.
With millions of people pivoting how they do their jobs (if they were lucky enough to keep them), the need for educational content is on the rise. In fact, consumers are 131% more likely to buy a product after reading educational content, according to a recent study.
The time and money you invest in the educational content right now can bring impressive results in the future.
4. Capitalize on your knowledge base
Is your knowledge base sitting idle, aimed solely at customer support? The year 2020 is an excellent time to take full advantage of it for SEO.
Here are some ideas for how to capitalize on this resource:
Turn your FAQ documentation into separate educational blogs
Link to your knowledge base to improve your internal linking efforts (link to it in “ticket received/closed” responses as well)
Study your customers’ behavioral patterns by checking which information they access most frequently, then create content based on those findings
Use the knowledge base to establish yourself as an authority in your industry
Put your knowledge base content in a nice wrapper (like a readable structure with entertainment elements and personalized touches). Then, use it on your website, social media, and for guest posting.
Right now, many people are rethinking their values, habits, and where they invest their time. (Image via Rawpixel)
5. Improve security
A crisis can create fertile ground for all kinds of fraudulent activity. Criminals across the globe create malware, use names of famous brands to offer fake discounts while phishing for sensitive information, and more.
Checking to see if the website is secured with SSL
Reviewing all your SEO add-ons and plugins for security, stability, and updates
6. Inspire your customers
Right now, many people are rethinking their values, habits, and where they invest their time. This is an excellent opportunity to inspire them to try something new. Create inspirational content for your website and PPC ad campaigns as a creative way to highlight products you may have had a hard time promoting in the past.
For example, you can take full advantage of an Instagram paid ads campaign to show how you can improve your customers’ lives during these trying times. Such an approach can turn into an efficient SEM campaign after the pandemic subsides as well.
7. Discover more paid social platforms
It’s likely that your target audience is spending more time online. Meanwhile, advertising costs are dropping. It’s the perfect environment for exploring new paid social platforms.
These ad types are often on the more affordable side when it comes to digital ads. Social media ads also seamlessly fit into feeds in a way that lets you meet your prospects where they already are.
If you’ve been advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s time to look at Instagram and Pinterest and vice versa. You can direct your attention to YouTube in-video ad placement as well.
The takeaway
The companies that survive through hardships aren’t the ones who say “we’re not going to change how we do things.” Rather, they work to think outside of the box, adapt to changing dynamics, and pivot their strategies in creative ways.
This is the motto for a high-quality 2020 SEM campaign. By rethinking your audience’s needs and adjusting to the new demands, you can set your brand up to survive any crisis — and gain valuable experience to capitalize on in 2021 and beyond.
Sam Yadegar
Sam Yadegar is the co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM. Starting out as a software engineer, his penchant for solving problems quickly led him to the digital marketing world, where he has been helping clients for over 12 years. He loves doing everything he can to help brands "crush it" through ROI-driven digital marketing programs. He's also a fan of basketball and spending time with his family.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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Tried-and-tested PPC strategies to attract more (qualified) leads into your pipeline
Here you’ll learn:
Why quality is more important than quantity for PPC lead generation
How to generate high-quality leads
Ways to adjust your campaign for lead generation
Tips for cutting PPC marketing costs
When it comes to PPC lead generation, the more you invest in your paid search campaigns, the more leads you’re likely to see. The tricky part is that, in PPC lead generation, quantity isn’t equal to quality.
The good news? With the right approach, you can achieve your lead generation goals, attract the right kinds of leads, and enjoy a healthy campaign ROI. Read on to find out how.
Look closely at how your target audience is searching for what you have to offer. (Image via Rawpixel)
PPC leads: quality vs. quantity
“Over the past month, we’ve generated 15,000 leads.” Sounds good, doesn’t it? But if only 100 of them convert, then you’ve got thousands of leads with very low ROI to show for it.
Leads with a high conversion potential are harder to obtain. To get them, you’ve got to avoid those who:
Window-shop without an intent to buy
Click to get a free gift in exchange for contact information (and share fake details)
Are bored and click for fun
Think they’ll be getting something else due to poor ad copy
Meanwhile, even a low-quality lead can gain potential with a well-structured PPC campaign. Let’s look into the most important tips to help you tweak your approach.
1. Create customized landing pages
Your PPC ads are only as effective as the pages they lead to. Each ad should take the potential client to a landing page that provides exactly what your ad promised.
For example, a “Get a free e-book” call to action (CTA) should lead directly to a page where the user can download the content (with or without filling out a short form). If they have to make additional clicks, these people are likely to leave the website, upping your bounce rate.
Google may even punish you for leading clients to a different page from what you promised in the ad. Search engines consider this practice deceptive and may lower your Quality Score, increasing the ad price.
2. Practice target audience segmentation
If you set up your PPC campaigns to target each product or service separately, you may not be getting as many high-quality leads as possible. Look closely at how your target audience is searching for what you have to offer.
From there, you can divide your offering into as many groups as possible. Instead of segmenting by products, you have the option of segmenting by:
Industry
Sub-categories
Features
Benefits
Geographic locations
For example, you provide managed IT services in LA:
Benefit: high-quality IT services, quick response managed IT, low-cost managed IT services
Geographical location: Managed IT services in LA, remote managed IT services in LA
When you segment the audience according to the above plan, you may have an easier time setting up the campaign, using the right keywords, writing ad copy, and creating specific landing pages.
3. Fine-tune your ad copy
The quality of your PPC campaign hinges on the effectiveness of your ad copy. Along with writing catchy, clear sentences and an actionable CTA, it’s crucial to keep the user’s intent top of mind.
Which stage of the buyer’s journey is your targeted audience in? For example, if they’re at the awareness stage, leading them to product-oriented pages might not do much good. You have to create ad copy aimed at getting their attention through an offer they’ll find valuable.
When writing the text itself, these are some elements to keep in mind:
Always address the potential client directly (use “you” and “your”)
Use exact numbers (feature statistics, show product’s price, advertise a sale)
Make use of the entire space offered by Google Ads — don’t leave any blank spaces
Show what makes your offer unique
And, of course, A/B test your ad design to see which one resonates most.
There are five main keyword types you can explore for your PPC campaign. (Image via Rawpixel)
4. Focus on your “money” keywords
Keywords are the pillars of your PPC campaign. So, after segmenting your audience, you can dive into the keyword search.
Tools like SpyFu and UberSuggest exist to help you gather a list of relevant keywords while keeping the competition’s efforts in mind. You can arrange your keywords using SEMrush’s PPC Keyword Tool.
The keyword types to explore for your PPC campaign include:
High-intent keywords — specific keywords for buyers at the bottom of the funnel
Low-intent keywords — to help expand your reach and increase brand awareness
Long-tail keywords — low-cost and low-competition keywords
Competitive keywords — high-volume keywords used by many companies in your industry
Make sure to create a list of negative keywords too. You can filter them out by using the Search Term Report and determining which keywords are generating irrelevant clicks. By putting them on the negative keyword list, you can improve the quality of your leads while cutting campaign costs. (Win-win!)
5. Track your campaign
Your PPC campaign needs regular tweaking to ensure it’s as optimized as possible. Track your efforts to keep a pulse on what needs changing. You can get an idea of what works and what doesn’t by following the key PPC marketing KPIs:
Impressions — how many times your ads appeared in search results
Clicks — how many times users clicked your ad
Click-through rate (CTR) — the percentage of users who clicked the ad (Clicks divided by Impressions)
Average position — a position in which your ads appeared on the search engine results page
Conversions — how many leads who clicked the ad followed the CTA within a certain window of time
Quality Score — an indicator of your ad, keyword, and landing page relevance to the user
Cost per conversion — how much you spend to obtain a new client
Bounce rate — people who clicked but left without following the CTA
Your PPC campaign should be geared toward generating high-quality leads. With the right approach to ad design, keyword search, analytics, and segmentation, you can achieve the desired conversions and enjoy an impressive ROI.
PPC lead generation may seem straightforward until you dig deeper into its nuances. Need help figuring them out? That’s what we’re here for.
Sam Yadegar
Sam Yadegar is the co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM. Starting out as a software engineer, his penchant for solving problems quickly led him to the digital marketing world, where he has been helping clients for over 12 years. He loves doing everything he can to help brands "crush it" through ROI-driven digital marketing programs. He's also a fan of basketball and spending time with his family.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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It’s vital to spend your hard-earned digital marketing budget on channels that bring you the best ROI. That’s why knowing the latest Google Ads updates is key.
Here, you’ll find:
Reasons to invest in Google Ads
How the paid search platform works
The latest Google Ads updates
Expert tips for leveraging the platform successfully
The best place to launch your digital marketing efforts is where your campaign attracts a massive audience — no surprise there. And, according to a 2019 report, Google led the list of the most popular search engines, commanding more than 62% of the American market share.
Paid advertisements often come hyperlinked at the top of search engine result pages (SERPs). Sure, you can work to rank organically for a given search term through SEO strategies — and you should. But not only can Google Ads help you get higher up in search results more quickly in the form of PPC ads, but it helps you stay competitive against others in your industry.
In March 2020, Google introduced more optimization score features to give marketers a better experience. (Image via Unsplash)
The benefits of Google Ads
You probably know how Google Ads works: It shows your online advertisement to prospective customers who may be interested in your business. You place bids on keywords and search terms and secure the top slots of SERPs if you win.
Being a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing strategy, you choose the maximum bid amount you wish to pay for each click on your ad. Your placement improves with your bid amount.
Since its inception in 2000 as Google Adwords, Google Ads has undergone many iterations and changes. Here are a few of the latest Google Ads updates that marketers should know about in 2020.
1. Improved features in the mobile app
The Google Ads mobile app allows users to review their marketing campaigns in real-time, evaluate recommendations, and take prompt action to optimize performance. In March 2020, Google introduced more optimization score features to give marketers a better experience.
Optimization score allows you to prioritize recommendations so you can identify the most impactful ones and put them into motion. You can view your Google Ads account and optimization scores at a glance on the overview page. To give priority to the actions that best drive performance, campaigns with high-impact recommendations come first on the screen.
You can view your Google Ads optimization score from your mobile device. (via Google)
You can also create and edit ads right on your smartphone. Choose to receive notifications about changes in optimization scores by opting in on the Settings page. The app notifies you in real-time whenever your scores fall. Once you open the message, the system leads you to the recommendations page where you get guidance on how to raise your optimization score and improve performance.
You may have seen dark-mode options cropping up in your phone updates and your social media profiles. The new Google Ads app also has this option, which you can turn on in the settings page for more visual comfort. It’s an excellent addition when you’re working in a dark or low-light environment.
2. Website link in call ads
Call volume management can be challenging for businesses with limited personnel. Another feature that Google has added to call ads (formerly call-only-ads) is an optional link to your website.
How call ads look on the SERP. (via Google)
The verification URL you add to your call ads only verifies your business details and phone number. Clicking the headline on your call ads initiates calls to your business. If you want ads that allow prospects to call and open your site, you can provide a Final URL. This URL is a secondary web address on your call ad that takes your audience to the webpage you choose.
Call ads increase your online visibility by making it easier for users to open your website. If a customer doesn’t want to call your business but wants to learn more about it online, all they need to do is click the ‘Visit website’ link in your call ad.
Google Trends is a fascinating feature that allows you to view the topics people are searching online, as well trending topics, trends over time, and more. (Image via Rawpixel)
3. The smart-bidding process
Google’s smart bidding aims to make marketing more manageable. The advertiser provides Google Ads with a budget, and Google algorithms get the best conversion value out of it. The intention is to maximize the total ROI of the campaigns.
Google algorithms find the opportunities that you might never spot, even if it’s promoting a low-priced product on your list. This approach is excellent for well-funded PPC campaigns that are already converting at a high rate.
Pro tip:Automation is great, but keep in mind that a “set it and forget it” mindset can only take you so far. The most effective paid search campaigns involve consistent analyzing, testing, and optimizing that can only come from experienced digital marketing pros.
4. Google Trends for a dynamic environment
The digital marketing landscape changes rapidly and often, which can affect your business. Google Trends is a fascinating feature that allows you to view the topics people are searching online, as well trending topics, trends over time, and more.
For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an influx of millions of office workers now working from home. For some, this has made it harder to keep up with the needs of consumers.
A look at the Google Trends results for “at home yoga” in the past 90 days. (via Google Trends)
Google Trends can provide insights into what is popular with your audience so you can modify your marketing efforts to match their expectations. If they’re searching for a business that offers home delivery, for instance, you can consider adding this service or something similar, like a pickup option.
5. Seamless interactions on YouTube
Currently, YouTube has more than two billion users, making it a priceless video platform for marketing. Google (which owns YouTube) has launched a feature that allows viewers to interact with businesses without having to exit the platform.
Here’s how it works: A potential customer views your ad and clicks on the call to action (CTA). Then, a drop-down menu with actionable items appears. It could be telling the audience more about your business, like the physical location, contact information, and so on.
Google processes about 40,000 searches per second, making it a prime marketing ground for paid ads. (Image via Rawpixel)
6. Lead form extensions
When it comes to marketing priorities, lead generation is usually at the top of the list. As part of your Google Ads campaign, you can include a new or existing lead form to generate more leads for your business.
Lead forms have three primary benefits — they:
generate leads and boost sales
attract and engage visitors to help you create new remarketing lists
direct prospects into the marketing funnel via the form, leading to more conversions
When a Google user clicks the CTA of a Google ad, a lead form that carries their Google account details pops out. They can then submit the form, bridging the gap between your business and potential customers.
The takeaway
Google processes about 40,000 searches per second, making it a prime marketing ground for paid ads. The beauty (and sometimes frustration) of Google Ads is that it keeps on evolving, giving you new and innovative ways to capture the attention of searchers.
Considering the authority of the search engine, staying on top of the latest Google Ads updates can only mean good things for your PPC program.
Sam Yadegar is the co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM. Starting out as a software engineer, his penchant for solving problems quickly led him to the digital marketing world, where he has been helping clients for over 12 years. He loves doing everything he can to help brands "crush it" through ROI-driven digital marketing programs. He's also a fan of basketball and spending time with his family.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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In the competitive paid search landscape, “set it and forget it” just won’t cut it.
Here, you’ll find:
What a PPC audit is
How a PPC audit can improve your paid search
Experts tips for conducting PPC audits
How often you should audit your PPC program
We know there are the moving parts that come with running successful paid search campaigns. Sometimes, it can feel like balancing spinning plates while trying to ride a unicycle, Cirque du Soleil-style. Add that to all the other tasks on your to-do list, and the set-it-and-forget-it strategy starts to look appealing.
But the best, most profitable PPC campaign you can run is one that you’re consistently analyzing, testing, and improving. That’s where a PPC audit comes in. Here, Jordan Fultz, one of our esteemed SEM managers, breaks down the ins and outs of PPC audits — and why they’re worth your time.
It’s easy to let PPC audits fall to the back-burner when you’re juggling multiple projects, but they’re one of the most effective ways to assess your PPC efforts. (Image via Unsplash)
What is a PPC audit?
A PPC audit is a detailed look into your PPC account to assess performance, strengths, weaknesses, and what could be tweaked for better results. Whether your account is a rousing success or underperforming, it’s worth conducting a PPC audit.
It’s easy to let PPC audits fall to the back-burner when you’re juggling multiple projects. But they’re one of the most effective ways to find things in your paid search efforts you may have missed. This is particularly true if you’ve been working with the same account for a long period of time.
Why you should conduct a PPC audit
Multiple elements and settings go into a paid search campaign. That means they all deserve consideration and a closer look when you’re strategizing. It’s easy for subtle settings to function under the radar — even for experienced account managers.
While it may sound painstaking to analyze each element, it’s key to ensuring your PPC is as high-performing as possible and you’re not wasting spend. After all, what business wouldn’t want to cut spend while increasing revenue? Getting granular with settings is how you do it. Questioning your PPC ad settings can help you consider how you can better aim your ads to searchers when it matters most.
Pro tip: While quick wins will likely be found during these audits, the process as a whole is a long-term investment that should be honed and repeated for best results.
What a PPC audit can tell you about your brand
An audit can quickly reveal whether your PPC efforts have been working together in tandem toward a common goal or are simply a mishmash of individual campaigns operating in silos. Audits will reveal how much work your business has put into crafting your overall paid search strategy.
Audits can also reveal how well paid search ads are being deployed according to plan. Even well-designed strategies don’t always follow the planned steps to a T. Corrections may be needed for settings and processes. You might also discover that your paid search data doesn’t completely sync up with your sales data and assumptions, such as increased demand for historically underperforming products or services.
Lately, COVID-19 has caused many shifts in supply and demand. Thus, weekly audits of search terms and product groups have been especially key. Let this time serve as a reminder that there will always be unpredictable market shifts. PPC audits allow you to see what’s changing so adaptations can be easily implemented.
During a PPC audit, it’s a good idea to go through every tab, view, and setting in your paid search accounts. (Image via Unsplash)
How to conduct a PPC audit
Audits begin with financial assessments that look at how well your PPC efforts are stacking up against your business goals. Once you have a snapshot, you can then dig into the settings and data to see what opportunities there might be moving forward. Every setting — from the account to the keyword — should be analyzed.
It’s a good idea to go through every tab, view, and setting in your paid search accounts, and to set up your columns so you can see relevant settings all at once.
For larger accounts, once your columns are set up in Google Ads, you can export the data to a spreadsheet to see how many campaigns are:
running with automated or manual bidding strategies
running with limited budgets
targeting different locations
and more
Google Ads’ Reports feature will be useful, especially when analyzing a shopping campaign’s product groups (particularly when using custom labels). You should also be analyzing ad copy and landing pages. E-commerce sites are particularly vulnerable to landing pages becoming forwarded or discontinued as products are added and sell out. These businesses in particular need to develop processes for auditing landing pages.
Conversion actions should also be a primary concern during an audit. You can reference Google Analytics to see what kind of time lag is expected from ad click to conversion. New site visitors will likely behave differently from returning visitors, so you can start to get an idea of how audiences and interest segments will be useful for targeting, observation, or bid modification in Google Ads. Basically, everything should be questioned, tested, and recorded.
How often you should conduct a PPC audit
Generally speaking, planning for a quarterly PPC audit is a good place to start. But your specific frequency will depend on a few factors — namely:
your business needs
the age of your PPC account
the size of your team
the rate at which things are changing for your business
Once you go through the process a few times and get a feel for what you want out of your audits, you can then develop your own schedule that meets your needs. After a few quarterly audits, you may find your business needs them more or less frequently.
What steps you should take after your PPC audit
Once your PPC audit is complete, it’s time to dig into the results. Circle up with your team to discuss each finding. This is also the time to address any other questions, concerns, and ideas relating to your PPC initiatives.
If you’ve performed your audit well, you’ll have plenty to review — even if your accounts have years of strategic iterating behind them. PPC audits aren’t just about looking for weaknesses in your strategy. They’re also a great opportunity to see where (and how) you can improve your PPC, and what parts are working well.
Nobody feels good after spending months on PPC efforts just to realize optimizations have been made based on misleading data. (Image via Unsplash)
PPC audit advice from an SEM agency expert:
Make sure your conversion actions are set up properly so you know you’re not double-counting conversions. Look at every single conversion setting, then ask yourself (or your team) if it should be changed.
Nobody feels good after spending months on PPC efforts just to realize optimizations have been made based on misleading data. No matter your business, it’s key to focus on increasing revenue with paid search. Lock in the best conversion goals for improving the bottom line.
As a secondary benefit, you’ll be able to test and trust automated bid strategies that rely on conversion actions to optimize themselves. Make sure you set them up for success so you can free up your paid search team’s time with a strategy-driven account suited to automated bid strategies.
The takeaway
Tunnel vision is a common ailment of paid search teams that are fighting in the proverbial trenches every day. Because of that, fresh eyes can help identify opportunities and threats.
If your paid search team has writer’s block or is too busy to develop new strategies and ideas, consider bringing in other teams or outside consultants to audit accounts. It’s a time-consuming process, but it’s worth it — there’s always more that can be done or tested.
But don’t let auditing give your paid search team the impression that they’re not trusted. Audits should be seen as positive, helpful exercises. They’re meant to serve as honest assessments of what’s being done and what can be improved.
Caroline is HawkSEM's content marketing manager. She uses her more than 10 years of professional writing and editing experience to create SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of seltzer water, print magazines, and huskies.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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The Google Shopping Ads feature is one of the best ways to get your products noticed. You upload your featured products to the Google Merchant Center, splash in some keywords, and images of your products will start to pop up on a Google search along with their prices.
It may sound simple, but there are a handful of key things you need to know to bring in serious sales using this service. If you want to take your marketing game to the next level, consider these six must-know tips to make Google Shopping Ads work for you.
Optimizing the information you submit to Google is the key to getting the best return on investment. (Image via Rawpixel)
How does Google Shopping Ads work?
Before we dive into the tips, Google Shopping Ads – formerly known as AdWords – is a paid search advertising service that is available for e-commerce businesses to use to attract new clients.
This service lets brands set up campaigns based on their budget. Your ad will appear in the search results page with your product, cost information, and product photo when a relevant keyword is used in a search.
This will give you a marketing edge because consumers will see your products at the top of the page. It can also benefit you by pushing competitors farther down the search results page.
What do I need to know about Google Shopping Ads?
Optimizing the information you submit to Google is the key to getting the best return on investment. Let’s go over these 6 tips.
1. Optimize your data feed
When you log in to your Google Merchant account, you’ll want to ensure that your data feed has the necessary information for your product titles. Descriptions in the product title should include:
Brand name
Material type
Sizes
Color
Model number
Do some keyword research to make sure you’re using the best keywords in your title descriptions. You can use Google’s keyword tracking tools such as Google Search Console and AdWords Keyword Planner to help with this.
2. Target the right keywords
You’ll want to leverage the same keywords a consumer would type into the Google search bar. For example, if your company sells coconut oil, “coconut oil” as a keyword would be too broad to use.
Instead, imagine the searcher is looking for more specific information about “coconut oil.” It’s best to use long-tail keywords like “best all-natural coconut oil” or “coconut oil for cooking.” Implementing long-tail keywords gives your product a better chance to reach the right audience.
Being specific is important because you don’t want to waste money serving ads to people who aren’t looking for your exact product. Your coconut oil could be used for cooking, for example, while someone is looking for coconut oil body lotion.
3. Add negative keywords
Adding negative keywords tells the search engine platform that you don’t want your ad to end up in a specific search. Let’s go back to the coconut oil example.
Refined coconut oil goes through a lot of processing and can be used to make soaps, bath oils, or body moisturizers, while unrefined coconut oil is best for cooking. If you’re selling unrefined coconut oil for cooking, excellent negative keywords you’ll want to add would be “refined coconut oil” or “processed coconut oil.”
4. Optimize your images
To grab a consumer’s attention, make sure you’re uploading high-quality images to associate with your products. Keep in mind that, per Google, your images need to be under 1024 kilobytes.
To get the best images possible, consider using a DSLR camera. These are cameras that provide the most detail and are used by professionals.
Also, make sure your products are clear with no distractions or busy backgrounds. The most popular look is the product with a white background. Use good lighting and make sure the product is the main focus.
If your products aren’t converting, you may want to consider moving them to a different ad group and lowering your bids. (Image via Unsplash)
5. Focus on your top-selling products
Putting your top-selling products in their own ad group will give you the best chance at finding the right audience. You can track your top-selling products by using Google Analytics. Make your bids are on the higher side for these items for maximum exposure.
If your products aren’t converting, you may want to consider moving them to a different ad group and lowering your bids. This can help ensure you’re maximizing your marketing budget and not overspending.
6. Use Showcase Shopping ads
The standard option that most businesses use is Product Shopping ads. These are the ads that show up on the top of a search results page. They have a product photo, price, and star reviews all nicely packaged in a small box that consumers can easily click on.
Another option is Showcase Shopping ads. Showcase Shopping ads give your audience a preview of what your brand is all about. This option lets you feature more than one product. It’s also ideal for broader keyword searches. For example, if you sell summer dresses, you can feature multiple dresses you sell in one ad for that keyword.
The takeaway
The tips we’ve mentioned above are crucial for making your Google Shopping Ads campaign successful. Paid search advertising like Google Shopping Ads help your audience find your products. By following the strategies of keyword targeting, using negative keywords, and image optimization, you’ll be on the right track of making your ads pay off.
Want to find out how you can optimize your PPC campaigns even further?Let’s talk!
Jane Serra
Jane Serra is the VP of Marketing at HawkSEM. She's an accomplished marketing executive with more than 12 years of experience leading digital marketing teams across demand generation, branding, events, content, and communications. When she's not strategizing, networking, and honing her craft, she enjoys traveling and scrolling Yelp for new restaurants to try.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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Yes, your PPC campaign should have negative keywords — here’s why
Here, you’ll find:
How to define negative keywords
Tips for building a negative keyword list
How negative keywords stack up again standard keywords
Negative keyword best practices
Like noodles for spaghetti, sunshine for plants, and gin for martinis, keywords are an essential part of pay-per-click (PPC) campaign success.
Maybe you’ve got a paid search campaign that’s bringing in a ton of leads, but the conversion rate is low, meaning you’re spending precious ad dollars on unqualified clicks. We’ve seen upwards of 90% in wasted ad spend when clients don’t include any negative keywords in their account.
On the other hand, if you feel confident that you’ve selected the right keywords that are hyper-focused on your audience, that’s great! But if you’re not also leveraging negative keywords, you may be missing out on making your PPC campaigns as targeted as they can be.
Taking advantage of negative keywords can do wonders for eliminating window shoppers and bad leads. According to Google, a negative keyword (also known as a negative match) is a keyword type “that prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase.”
Meaning: if someone searches for a phrase including a term you’ve deemed a negative keyword, your ads won’t show up.
Want to make sure you know all the benefits of negative keywords for PPC? Let’s dive in.
When you’re mining your reports for keywords to exclude, you want to include their variations as well. (Image via Unsplash)
Negative keywords vs. standard keywords
Using keyword targeting helps ensure your paid search ad is tailored to your audience. When you’re paying for each individual click, you want those who click your ad to be qualified leads. Negative keywords work the same way, just in the opposite direction.
When you add negative keywords, you’re telling the ad platform (such as Google or Bing) that you don’t want your ad to appear for certain searches.
If your company makes tasty salsa, for instance, then you may want “salsa” to be one of your keywords. But if someone’s searching online for “salsa dancing” or “salsa lessons,” they’re probably not looking for your product. By adding these as negative keywords, you can filter out people searching with these terms, thus saving you from spending money on bad leads.
Pro tip: When it comes to queries with more than 10 words in them, negative keywords can’t be applied.
Building your negative keyword list
It’s a good idea to conduct your research the same way you conduct your standard keyword research, particularly before and during a campaign launch.
Search Engine Watch advises you to start the process by thinking about the types of businesses, products or services that your brand could be mistaken for (like our salsa example above). Next, brainstorm the search terms that might be used to describe those businesses.
There are some terms — like “address,” “free,” and “login” — that you’ll probably want to select as negative keywords right off the bat. After that, you can also refer to your SEO analytics and see what search terms are bringing visitors to your site. Are there any that clearly stand out as negative keywords? Add those to your list.
The different types of negative keywords
As with standard keywords, there are various types of negative keywords.
For PPC campaigns, negative keywords can be broad match (keywords that don’t have punctuation around the words), exact match (if the search contains the exact negative keyword you’ve specified, the ad won’t show), or phrase match (meaning your ad won’t show if the exact keyword terms, in that order, are searched). But that doesn’t mean they function in all the same ways.
As of the past few years, “exact match” doesn’t always meanexact for standard keywords. It does, however, when it comes to negative keywords. Google explains that the main difference between these two types is that you need to include variations of these keywords if you want to exclude them. These variations can include:
Synonyms
Singular or plural versions
Misspellings
Any other close variations
This is why, when you’re mining reports for keywords to exclude, you want to exclude their variations as well.
Pro tip: When you’re entering your keywords into Google Ads, you can add them at both the ad group and campaign level. For negative keywords, you generally want to apply them to the campaign level, not just the ad group level, so other keywords can trigger that term.
Regularly go into your ads account, head to “search terms” in your Keywords tab, and mark any keywords you see that stand out as being irrelevant. (Image via Unsplash)
Adjust your negative keyword list as needed
Just like your standard keyword list, your negative keyword list shouldn’t remain stagnant. You always want to be optimizing and iterating to make sure your PPC ads are as targeted as possible.
How often you iterate on your list will depend on various factors, including your campaigns and bandwidth. No matter what “consistent” means for you and your team, it’s a good idea to regularly go into your ads account, head to “search terms” in your Keywords tab, and mark any keywords you see that stand out as being irrelevant.
The takeaway
For all the reasons above, it can be hugely beneficial to add negative keywords to your PPC campaigns. Not only does this help weed out those who aren’t in the market for your product or service, but it saves you money by helping you only pay for clicks that will (hopefully) become customers.
With a bit of brainstorming and some campaign tweaks, you can be sure that your PPC campaign won’t attract the wrong crowd.
Want to take your PPC to the next level this year? We can help.
Caroline Cox
Caroline is HawkSEM's content marketing manager. She uses her more than 10 years of professional writing and editing experience to create SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of seltzer water, print magazines, and huskies.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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Digital marketing can get you in front of potential customers, while the right strategy can get them to convert.
Here, you’ll find:
How search results affect customer acquisition
The organic efforts that can help acquire new leads
Effective paid marketing strategies for your business
How to ensure your site is set up for optimal acquisition
Marketing pros who aren’t new to the game likely know all about the customer journey. It’s comprised of the stages we base our content, campaigns, and gameplans on: awareness, consideration, and decision. (With delight as the bonus step.) And the customer journey is a crucial element when it comes to acquisition.
Customer acquisition is the process of going from a generated lead to a converted customer — it’s basically the whole funnel (or journey) combined. At the end of the day, marketing is about attracting new customers, and keeping customer acquisition top of mind is how marketers can make that happen.
While there’s no one way to pinpoint and acquire qualified leads that are sure to become customers, there are a handful of digital marketing strategies you can implement with customer acquisition in mind. Here, we’ve mapped out six of our favorites.
Companies that use paid search for successful customer acquisition know it’s not only about the ad. (Image via Unsplash)
1. Paid search
Also known as pay per click (PPC), paid search is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies when it comes to customer acquisition. That’s because it allows companies to target their specific audience with the right keywords at the right time.
Paid search ads appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) on sites like Google and Bing. If someone’s searching for “women’s black cycling shoes,” for example, and you’re an e-commerce brand selling cycling products (including women’s black cycling shoes), you want your targeted ad to be the one they see. The same goes for brands selling services and other products.
The companies that use paid search for successful customer acquisition know it’s not only about the ad, though. Rather, it’s crucial to pair eye-catching, appealing ad copy with an optimized landing page that boasts consistent verbiage, clean design, and a clear call to action (CTA).
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Along with a paid search strategy, having a solid SEO strategy helps your website be more easily recognized by search engines. This helps improve your rankings and, ideally, grow your reach for better customer acquisition.
Proper SEO on your site means having elements including:
Unique title tags on your pages
High-quality content marketing
Internal links and external links (to authoritative sites)
A site map
Meta descriptions
Images with alt tags
Ensuring your site is optimized for search engines won’t automatically get you in the first position (or even the first page) on the SERPs. The search algorithm that determines the best content for each search query is constantly changing, and the details about how search engines determine the best content to show searchers isn’t always clear.
However, by keeping your site up to date, easy to navigate, and educational for prospects and clients, you can position your brand as a thought leader and your site as a valuable resource of information.
3. Social media
When it comes to social media, you’ve got the option to leverage both organic and paid avenues. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that each path can be leveraged in the same way or achieve the same results.
Let’s start with organic social media. The practice of regularly creating social media posts can spread the word about new business offerings or updates, increase your exposure, and even help you go viral (in the good way, ideally).
While organic social posts likely won’t directly result in customer acquisition, they can aid in brand awareness, content sharing, and allow you to highlight the fun side of your brand.
Paid social, on the other hand, can be a powerful tool if wielded properly. When choosing which platforms to advertise on, you should first consider your target audience and the platforms they use most.
From there, you should take advantage of the audience targeting tools most of these platforms have in place, so you can get your content delivered straight to those who need to see it most. Paid social is a great way to meet people where they are in a way that’s nearly seamless.
When done right, remarketing is one of the best ways to get past visitors back to your site. (Image via Unsplash)
4. Remarketing
As we’ve touched on before, remarketing can benefit your business in numerous ways. Not only does it keep you top of mind when someone visits your site without making a purchase or requesting a consultation or demo, but it allows you to hyper-focus your ads and ups your chances of turning a lead into a conversion.
Remarketing (also called retargeting) works by leveraging display ads to connect your business with people who have already visited your site or mobile app. The most successful remarketing campaigns aren’t one size fits all, of course — a brand-new site visitor shouldn’t be remarketed the same way as a returning visitor. When done right, it’s one of the best ways to get past visitors back to your site. Bonus: it’s one of the most cost-effective ad strategies around.
5. Content marketing
When people hear “content marketing,” they may automatically think of blogs. And while blogging is a great medium for businesses when it comes to customer acquisition, it can encompass much more. Content can be:
Blog posts
Videos
Guides and e-books
Infographics
Checklists
Downloadable templates
Product descriptions
Case studies
No matter the content you create, you want to make sure it’s accurate, helpful, and targeted. The more content you create, the more industry topics you can cover, and the more likely you are to be found on SERPs by those in search of what you have to offer.
You can even take things a step further by partnering with another brand on a piece of content, such as an infographic, webinar, or guest blog. This expands your reach, helps you build a professional network, and boosts your credibility as a reliable source.
6. Email newsletters
As Digital Marketing Institute reports, you’re six times more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than from a tweet. Newsletters can be a powerful acquisition channel if you follow a few key strategies. The most successful newsletters:
Include only one main CTA
Offer a tactical takeaway (like a pro tip, discount, or statistic)
Feature an attention-grabbing subject line
Have an easy-to-read template
Are optimized for mobile
When you’re looking to build your non-client subscriber list, get creative! You can add exit-intent pop-ups to your site, or include a subscription box in your site’s footer. Offline, you can give people the option to sign up if your brand is posted up in a booth at an industry conference or networking event — a particularly effective strategy if you’re doing a giveaway or contest.
Pro tip: Let your readers help you spread the word! Include social share links as well as forwarding options in your email newsletter to make sharing a breeze.
You’re six times more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than from a tweet. (Image via Unsplash)
The takeaway
Customers are the bread and butter of any business, and digital marketing is one of the most direct ways to connect with your desired prospects.
By knowing your audience, meeting them where they are, and analyzing the data behind your campaigns, you’ll have the tools you need to not only attract more customers, but keep them loyal and happy as well.
We know a thing or two about successful digital marketing here at HawkSEM. Wondering how we can take your ROI to the next level? Let’s talk.
Caroline Cox
Caroline is HawkSEM's content marketing manager. She uses her more than 10 years of professional writing and editing experience to create SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of seltzer water, print magazines, and huskies.
Questions or comments? Join the conversation here!
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Ah, the ever-changing algorithm. Many a marketer wishes they knew the magic words to instantly land them at the top of search engine results, but we all know it’s not nearly that simple.
And that’s too bad, because we also know that approximately three-fourths of users don’t read past the first page of search results. That’s where pay-per-click (PPC) ads come in.
Also referred to as paid search marketing, PPC marketing falls under the category of search engine marketing. PPC ads are the hyperlinked results at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) above the organic, search engine optimized (SEO) results. They look similar to the organic results, except with a little green box denoting “ad” next to it.
The good news: According to a survey by Clutch, 75% of people say paid search ads make it easier to find the info they’re searching for online.
PPC can be a highly effective tool in your digital marketing arsenal, whether your industry is SaaS, financial services, higher education, insurance, or anything in between. It can help connect you with potential clients through eye-catching copy that provides context and a hyperlink taking them straight to a targeted landing page on your site.
PPC ads look similar to organic search results, except with a little box denoting “ad” next to it.
What is PPC marketing?
Paid search and PPC are defined as a type of online advertising that allows marketers to have their brand’s display ads show up on in the sponsored results section of a SERP. And because of the pay-per-click nature of these ads, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad.
Getting the clicks — that’s the tricky part. To create the most effective PPC campaigns, you want your ads to appear in front of the right audience searching for the right keywords that makes sense for your product or service.
From there, you place your bid to say how much you think a click is worth. When your ad shows up and gets clicked on, you’re charged a fee (that can vary greatly depending on industry, competition, keywords, quality score, and more).
PPC vs. paid social ads
Social media advertising is a great way to meet your target audience where they are while also subverting pesky platform algorithms that can keep your content from showing up in feeds.
But unlike PPC ads, you pay a flat rate for the ad space — rates don’t change depending on impressions or engagement. This often translates into social ads being more expensive than PPC.
PPC vs. display ads
Display ads are ads that show up on almost every revenue-generating site across the web. These are the ads you see on the top, side, or bottom of website you visit, a mobile app you use, or a video you watch.
Display ads are known for their high visibility rates. Ads created via the Google Display Network reportedly reach more than 90% of people on the Internet. Because of their prevalence, display ads often don’t have as high of a click-through rate (CTR) as PPC ads.
Most often, these ad types are used for branding, so you stay top of mind after someone visits your site, in conjunction with your PPC efforts.
What are the components of a PPC ad?
Let’s start with Google PPC ads. These can contain:
1-3 headlines
A display URL
A description up to 90 characters long
Ad extensions
Google allows up to three headlines in a PPC ad.
Headlines
Recently, Google upped the ante by allowing up to three headlines in a PPC ad, separated by a “|” or pipe symbol. Your headlines are where you have the opportunity to catch someone’s attention and highlight a product or service while being direct about what you offer.
When brainstorming PPC ad headlines, consider elements like:
Including keywords
Highlighting a common problem and/or solution
Getting as close to character limits as possible
Asking questions
Using concise, to-the-point language
Display URL
Your display URL can be your site’s homepage or a simple, clean URL that relates to the keywords and ad copy (such as hawksem.com/ppc). This clean display URL is simply what appears to users within your ad.
Ideally, though, the URL links to a targeted landing page on your site. The landing page should closely match with the look, feel, and verbiage of the ad, with a clearly defined CTA so the person knows what action to take next.
For example, if HawkSEM was creating a PPC ad that offered a free PPC audit, the display URL could be something like hawksem.com/free-ppc-audit. This way the offer is clearly matched with the ad itself. The link might then route to a more complex URL like hawksem.com/ppc-audit/?utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=google-ads&utm_campaign=ppc-audit for tracking purposes.
Descriptions
You’ve got a limited number of characters to work with for your PPC ad’s description — make them count! Your description should speak specifically to your target audience, highlight benefits for them (vs. just talking about how great your offering is), and have a strong call to action (CTA).
Descriptions are most effective when they’re tangible, i.e. offering “25% off” instead of simply saying “we’re the best!” Plus, Google now allows for 2 descriptions, doubling your character count to 180.
Ad extensions
Ad extensions are no-cost additional lines of text that can help improve your CTR by adding more info and context to your ad (as well as more real estate on the SERP). As Google explains, ad extensions can include:
More text
Call buttons
Location info
Additional links to your website
Star ratings
Your extensions aren’t guaranteed to show up with your ad, but if your ranking is high enough and the extension is likely to improve performance, it will.
Microsoft Advertising PPC ads (formerly known as Bing ads) function and look similar to Google Ads.
Microsoft Advertising PPC ads (formerly known as Bing ads) function and look similar to Google Ads. They feature the “ad” box next to the result, and include a headline, URL, and description. As you can see above, some ads include additional links and descriptions as well.
Shopping ads are more visual, often leading to a higher CTR than plain-text ads.
What are shopping PPC ads?
For e-commerce brands and those who sell products online, shopping ads can be a great way to get someone to “add to cart.” Shopping ads are more visual, often leading to a higher CTR than plain-text ads.
Shopping ads are automated based on data you send to the search engines. That’s why it’s crucial to fully optimize the product pages on your website. To set up your product to be included in the results feed, you’ve got to format your product information to be compatible with the Shopping feed’s ad platform. Once you submit your product data to the search engine in the proper format, you’ll be primed to show up on the SERP’s ad section. The approval process can take 24-72 hours. Merchant centers for Google and Bing have their own breakdowns to ensure you’re following the proper steps.
What are some stats on PPC marketing?
One-third (33%) of respondents in a Clutch survey said they click on a paid search ad because it directly answers their search query.
The first PPC ad spaces were reportedly created in 1996 by Planet Oasis and Google as a research project at Stanford University.
Microsoft’s search network Bing attracts 116 million unique desktop searchers a year.
Between 40 and 60 billion Google searches take place each month in the U.S.
Bing users spend 35% more online when shopping from their desktop computers than average internet searchers.
People are most likely to click on text paid search ads (49%) vs. shopping or product listing ads (31%) and video ads (16%).
Sponsored ads account for 2 out of 3 clicks on the first page of Google results.
What are the benefits of creating PPC marketing ads?
With PPC marketing ads, you don’t have to fight against the algorithm to show up at the top of a SERP listing. These ads put your business in front of the right people at the right time — when they’re searching for something similar to have you have to offer.
Gone are the days of buying ads and crossing your fingers that they’re seen by enough interested people to be worth their price. By using keyword planner tools to target your audience by preference, region, and more — only paying for the clicks you actually get — you have much greater chances of turning that click into a successful conversion.
It’s up to you to determine the amount you’re willing to pay when someone clicks your ad. Essentially, you’re deciding how much each click is worth.
How does bidding work?
You likely know how auctions work — there’s an item (or, in this case, a rank placement), and different people try to outbid each other to be the one who scores.
That’s how PPC bidding works, more or less. When someone enters a query into their chosen search engine, there’s an auction. The built-in algorithm picks what they determine as the most relevant paid and organic search results, and that’s what the user sees.
It’s up to you to determine the amount you’re willing to pay when someone clicks your ad. Essentially, you’re deciding how much each click is worth. What makes this tricky is that, unlike in a public auction, you don’t know how much your competitors are bidding on each keyword compared to yours.
If another advertiser outbids you, their ad is the one that’ll get shown. If you bid too high, you may get more clicks, but you can also go through your budget in a snap. To find the happy medium, it takes time and attention, whether that means you, a team member, or a digital marketing agency.
Keep an eye on your click volume and the types of clicks you’re getting — are they qualified leads or are they junk? These insights will help you modify both your bidding and your ad content accordingly.
What is a quality score?
Along with your bid, your quality score also factors into your ad ranking. Google decides on your overall quality score (on a scale from 1, which is not great, to 10, which is excellent).
This can be viewed in the keywords section of your Google Ads account. The better your quality score, the more you’ll rise through the ranks of results and the better cost-per-click (CPC) rate you’re likely to get.
Your PPC ad’s ranking at the top of a SERP depends on factors like the keywords you’re bidding on, the competition for those keywords, your bid amount, and your quality score.
What affects an ad’s ranking?
Your PPC marketing ad’s ranking at the top of a SERP depends on a few factors. These include which keywords you’re bidding on, the amount of competition for those keywords, the amount of your bid, and your quality score.
The ad ranked below you ———————————- + $0.01 = actual CPC Your quality score
The higher your ranking, the greater your chances are of getting a click — pretty simple. If you want to up your ranking without increasing your spending, make sure your ads are compelling, accurate, and in line with the hyper-focused landing pages connected to them.
You also want to be mindful of who you’re targeting, when you’re targeting them, and where you’re targeting (from region to the search engine itself).
What is PPC lead scoring?
Generating leads is one thing — but knowing the value of the leads being generated is another altogether. When you know the true value of the leads coming in through lead scoring, you can better prioritize and iterate your PPC marketing strategies. This helps you drive more of the kind of leads you want in the future.
You can determine your lead value by setting up a lead-scoring system that connects your quality leads to the amount spent on each lead.
ValueTrack parameters can be added to landing page URLs that gather info about who is clicking your ads. From there, you can pull this PPC marketing campaign data into your CRM to connect with lifetime value and lead score. This helps determine which campaigns are driving the best leads and value (and it’s part of ConversionIQ, our smart approach to marketing).
Armed with this info, you can better analyze your PPC campaigns and keywords to maximize your ROI.
Total Revenue Generated / Total Number of Leads = Average Revenue Per Lead
However, this doesn’t paint the whole picture. There are other factors at play as well, including your average sales cycle length, site traffic, customer relationship management (CRM) data, and lead scoring to determine your high-quality leads.
Ensure you’re properly measuring your PPC ROI by:
Setting up lead scoring
Tracking your leads and conversions properly
Adding in subjective data regarding experiences with the lead
Calculating anticipated ROI before anticipated site traffic
How can you optimize your search engine marketing (SEM) plan for PPC success?
You can have the best PPC ads around — but if the rest of your online presence is lackluster, you still risk those clicks turning into dead ends instead of closed deals.
Take another look at your SEM program. Are you leveraging the right keywords? Have you planned out your ROI goals? Is your site fully optimized? Being able to answer “yes” to all of these questions will give you and your team the peace of mind that you’re doing all you can when it comes to search engine marketing.
Plenty of companies make the mistake of letting conversion tracking fall by the wayside. Some set it up improperly, and some aren’t tracking this at all. Conversion tracking is crucial for giving you insight into performance while providing you with insightful data about customer actions.
A step-by-step plan for an ROI-driven PPC campaign
Think you’ve got the ROI-driven PPC thing down? Make sure you’re taking all of these steps when crafting your campaign:
Determine your campaign’s goals
Identify, prioritize, and categorize the right keywords for your campaign
Write out your ad copy
Set up your ads within your chosen ad platform
Determine the desired CTA
Make sure your landing pages are targeted, consistent, and optimized
Have tracking set up (properly! More than 70% of our PPC audits turn up incorrect or with improper tracking.)
How to find the right PPC agency for you
Whether you’re not seeing the PPC results you want or just don’t have the time and resources to manage it all, partnering with an agency can be hugely beneficial. (OK, so maybe we’re a little biased.)
When you’re vetting out the agencies you potentially want to work with, it’s a good idea to prepare by:
Having a list of goals and objectives
Deciding which services you need
Having a budget in mind
Determine your key performance indicators (KPIs)
Once you decide which agencies you want to actually connect with in-person or via phone, make sure you get an understanding of their fee structure, company culture, and communication style. You also want to make sure the team you’re working with is knowledgeable and experienced. (Think all PPC agencies are the same? Think again.)
The takeaway
PPC ads have proven to be a way to reach your targeted audience and turn search engine users into customers. Not only can paid search ads boost awareness of your brand by 80%, but they can expand your reach, bring you more traffic, and, ultimately, make you more money.
Ready to take your PPC game to the next level? Let’s chat.
Caroline Cox
Caroline is HawkSEM's content marketing manager. She uses her more than 10 years of professional writing and editing experience to create SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of seltzer water, print magazines, and huskies.
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