Marketers have been becoming more creative in finding ways to continue ranking for heavily competitive search phrases, and to stay there. The more ways your site can be found outside of the keywords that users type in search, the more challenging and exciting it is to try to get ahead of the competition.
Pay-Per-Click advertising is one of those ways. Paid search levels the playing field, giving newcomers and those who need an extra boost a chance to compete with top sites that have enjoyed high organic rankings for a long time. PPC advertising is a great tool to help you come out on top, but it’s not free.
With PPC, there’s the additional challenge of getting the best return from your campaign. Because you’re incurring additional expenses to get ahead of the competition, you’ll want to see that you are, indeed, able to stay ahead. To do this, you will need well-structured PPC campaigns that will not just direct the highest possible traffic to your business, but generate leads that convert to actual sales. Here, we’ll learn some pro tips about launching the best PPC advertisements and getting the most out of them.
Learn how a PPC campaign helps you break into the market in Toronto. Call 360 Business Local at (416) 619-7935 today!
Be Present Year-Round
Many businesses experience a peak in sales during a certain time or season. As such, many advertising campaigns are geared towards bringing in the most traffic during those peak times. To get ahead, many businesses think of advertising heavily well before these peak seasons, focusing a lot of their efforts and resources on these particular times and less during the off season.
However, the goal of every business is to stay afloat year-round. This is why it’s also important not to direct all advertising efforts and budget during just one season or peak time. Business owners and digital marketers alike can identify other times that would be good to generate leads using paid campaigns. A good strategy would be to spread out resources and launch PPC campaigns even when it’s not a peak time for your business, or even the industry it moves in. This helps you maintain a solid, year-round presence. While success in business can be predicted through patterns, you never really know who might come knocking at your door as a result of your advertising efforts, so it’s best to keep your options open.
Running PPC campaigns well-spread throughout the year widens your lead time. Aside from bringing in unexpected business, a wider lead time allows you to capture the interest of more conscientious shoppers who like doing their research and spending time getting to know your business before they actually decide to purchase from you. Constant brand marketing efforts help you keep an audience happy and guarantee that they will keep you in mind for when their need of your product or service arises.
Bid All Ways
Some business owners think they should not bid on their brand terms when launching PPC advertisements because that’s what SEO is for. However, SEO efforts only take care of organic search results. Bidding on your brand allows your business to show up in that prime advertising space on top of organic search results. Doing this increases your chances of draw in potential customers: first through your ad on top, and then your organic listing below. When you bid on your brand, you shape your brand’s narrative and control the message. Doing this helps your ad come out on top, in addition to your SEO efforts.
You should also look into bidding on the ‘wrong terms’. A good portion of search engine users don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, and as a result, enter very generic search terms, picking out from the results something that piques their interest. To do this, you will need to get creative with your messaging without being misleading.
Some search engine users could be entering generic terms and bidding only on your specific brand terms would result in your ad not appearing in their search results. Thus, it is useful to bid on general terms and even on ‘wrong’ terms, as these could lead to users who do not have anything exact in mind being directed to your products or services. This could help them realize they have been looking for something your business offers.
Capitalize on your brand terms, but at the same time, think ahead of what your competitors might do. As competition in a big city such as Toronto is tough, competitors won’t resist bidding on your brand terms, and if you insist on bidding only on generic terms or refuse to bid on their terms as well, competitor ads could display above your organic listings, reducing your chances of drawing in your target market.
When crafting your PPC campaign, keep in mind your own brand terms, what your competitors would do, and what your market looks for, especially those who opt for general searches and could be using the ‘wrong’ terms to find service or product providers, such as your business.
Use Your Strongest Links
A PPC advertisement does not just have to lead users to your site’s homepage. A good campaign can be more targeted, using your site links wisely. This helps search engine users find exactly what they’re looking for, allowing your website to draw them in if they see that your ads are directly linked to the exact product or service they are looking for.
No one appreciates being shown links not directly related to their search. To draw the largest possible audience to your site, it helps to use your site’s top links in your ads. Links to your business’ core products or services can be displayed along with your ad.
Along with product or service pages, you can also use related links, such as pages they would navigate to after reading about your core offerings. Links that display more extensive information on related products or services, reviews, news, and store locations, among others, are helpful. These links work as extensions of the products or services you are advertising, and will help you build stronger ties with your audience, giving them the complete experience of doing business with you, and even help to turn them into patrons in the future.
Optimize Your Landing Pages
You’ve drawn your market into your site, now it’s time to keep them interested in your business and keep them happy with what they see once they’re in your website. When they click on your ad and are directed to a landing page that is messy and does not show upfront what they hoped to see based on the ad that drew them in, they’re going to hit the back button and proceed to see what others offer.
When users click on your ad, they should be directed to a landing page that shows exactly what your PPC advertisement says. They need to be able to immediately make the connection. It only takes a couple of seconds for users to realize that they’ve either been directed to your site correctly, or they were only misled by your catchy advertisement.
A good landing page can successfully convert a user’s visit into a sale. Good landing pages are focused, organized and clear. They include a call to action, good high quality images, and displays all information that your ad says it would. Users are also able to make a clear connection between the ad displayed and the products or services they see on the landing page. This will instantly help them decide whether your offerings are worth their time and investment or not.
Change It Up
Every target market is drawn to different flavors. You run an ad primarily to expand your reach, but there is an infinite number of ways you can reach out, and an even greater number of ways your audience could respond to each of your efforts. Where your ad is placed also matters. Each local market in Toronto has its own preference and better respond to ads crafted for them. Depending on where you’re advertising and who you’re reaching out to, you need to change up your PPC advertisement in order to successfully target different markets and bring them all in your business.
Changing up your PPC campaigns shows your market you truly understand their needs and that your products and services are carefully crafted for each of their unique needs. Small efforts such as changing the language and appealing to quirks and tastes that are uniquely local to a market resonate well with your target audience. People respond to being understood and treated well, and showing that your business cares about their needs will lead to building good business relationships and creating a solid following for your brand.
Using PPC campaigns to bring in business is an investment, but a smart use of paid advertisements can effectively direct leads to your site and open more opportunities for sales, profit and success for your business.