Paid advertising is an extremely competitive field. There are big guns and pros spending thousands of dollars every month, and these things can intimidate a small business with real financial constraints.
In this article, I’m going to lay out for you 5 tips to help you see improvements in your PPC advertising.
In the face of increasing competition, decreasing margins, and decreased profit, it’s natural to feel in over your head. With these tips, you’ll be able to not only stay afloat but see an increased profit from your PPC.
1. The Sales Funnel
If you’re going to have any long-term success with PPC advertising, you need to have a sales funnel in place. This is the framework in which you should evaluate your marketing. It’s the process that takes visitors from new customers to repeat buyers.
To goal is to take a bunch of people who are maybe interested in your product, maybe not, and to send them down through the funnel so that, by the end, they’re taking your desired call to action.
Let’s start at the top of the funnel, the widest portion. The first category of customers is Leads. These are people who are aware of your company or whom you decide to pursue. Most likely, leads are going to be coming in from PPC advertising.
This is why your funnel is so crucial. You need to be able to take leads generated by PPC ads and send them down your funnel, all the way to the sale.
The next category down the funnel after Leads is Prospects. The definition of Prospects within your business model will vary from other businesses. Generally speaking, a Prospect is a person who is in touch with you and who is interested in what you’re offering.
Next is Customers. Clearly, Repeat Customers are ideal.
Sales funnels are not a new idea, but, the Internet has definitely made them a whole lot easier to build.
Without a sales funnel, PPC is kind of like wandering in the desert, hoping to stumble across a water source. Probably not going to yield the best results.
While the basic premise of a sales funnel informs your marketing, you also need to adapt it to work for you. You need to understand what the customer value is and how many clicks you need, to bring about profit for your business.
As a business owner, you need to know what percentage of people move from one group of funnel to another. This will inform your marketing, and allow you to make adjustments where needed.
Having a sales funnel in place assures you that people will become aware of your product, and will, therefore, need to decide whether or not to take the plunge. Your goal is to take people and move them in the direction of a sale.
2. Great Copy
Though your PPC ads may be short and sweet, they’ve got to pack a punch. For someone who has no idea what you’re about or what you’re offering, you’ve got to get them to take the bait.
And by taking the bait, I don’t mean using promises and superlatives, to get customers to click on your ad, only to find you can’t deliver on your promises.
Your ad must coincide with what you’re actually offering. The last thing you need is people clicking the ad, and finding out that your product is not what they gathered from your ad. This is a waste of investment, on your part.
Craft a stellar headline, and provide information in the body of the ad, which informs, but also leaves a reader with unanswered questions, wanting to know more. Consider also including stats and maybe even a dose of humor.
A well-written ad goes a long way. Work and re-work your ads. Get input from those on your team.
A clear call to action on the ad is absolutely essential. You’ve piqued their curiosity, and now make it hard to resist clicking through to your landing page.
3. Engaging Images
A great image is also crucial to creating high-performing PPC ads. The platform you’re operating on really affects whether or not adding an image to your ad would be beneficial.
A crisp image of a person or a cartoon or an infographic can really bump up the overall effect of your ad. This is something you need to play around with. Avoid cheese, and again, get input from others. There is a fine line between cheesy and effective when it comes to images.
This is something you may consider outsourcing. Having a good quality image created by a graphic designer to fit your ad, will give you a polished look, as opposed to a messy, unfinished-feeling ad.
4. Remarketing
Most people need to see an offer more than once to make a purchase. You know this is true for your own purchase history.
There’s a never-ending supply of options, and many become paralyzed by just knowing that all the options exist. Even though you may be doing everything right, and have a smooth operating process, buyers sometimes need a little prodding.
This is where the beauty of remarketing (or retargeting) comes to play. By adding a pixel to your website, you can target those customers who have already skimmed or searched for your product.
Imagine you own a brick-and-mortar store that sells vacuums. Instead of sending out a salesperson to knock on the door of a customer who glanced longingly at the latest Dyson model, Google and Facebook will do that work for you.
By adding a pixel to your site code, you can then retarget visitors to your site on Facebook and Google.
In addition to retargeting a visitor, your ads can tailor ads to propose offers, free trials, and promotions, which yields high conversion rates.
Here’s an example. Someone checks out your tutorial but doesn’t end up submitting their e-mail on your landing page. Then they click on Facebook and skim their news feed, only to find a compelling ad taking them back to your landing page.
In my experience, this is sometimes all it takes to get that buyer to commit.
5. Evaluate
The key to successful marketing is a commitment to consistently evaluating how things are going.
Herein lies the benefit of marketing on social media like Facebook and Google. All the numbers and stats are at your fingertips.
I get it. The majority of business owners and entrepreneurs have entered a field not involving numbers. And now I’m telling you it's all about the numbers.
But the passion for your product or service will die out if you’re not informed and on top of your numbers. You can do all the work in the world, but if it is not informed by all the steps that got a Prospect to Customer, it's in vain.
Analyzing is not a one-time action. It is an ongoing process. Trends change. People’s behaviors and keyword searches will change over time.
It is vital to regularly check the numbers so that you can make necessary changes, and even just do more of what is working.
Smart marketers are constantly A/B testing various ads. What is producing the greatest profit for your company? Why is one ad doing better than another?
You’ve got to be committed to knowing your stats, and your numbers, and making the necessary changes for improvement. Unless you're some super-human, you’re never going to get it right the first time.
Conclusion
Pay-per-click marketing is an exceptional way to increase your return on investment. It's key to most online marketing.
Applying the principles I’ve discussed will be sure to inform you as you invest in marketing and also bring big results.
How about you? What do you recommend doing to see bigger results for PPC?
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