16 Innovative Approaches to Improve Your PPC Strategy

What is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising?

PPC advertising is a form of digital advertising in which the brand is charged based on performance. If nobody clicks on their ad, it costs nothing. Each time someone clicks on the ad, the advertiser is charged, usually pennies per click. The goal of PPC advertising is to drive traffic to the brand’s landing page or website for brand awareness or lead generation.

Pay-per-click advertising can be done with banner ads, but the more commonly seen format is text-based ads on search engines such as Google. While some digital advertising media may have a fixed price per click, search engine cost per click (CPC) is determined by the degree of competitiveness for the specific keywords chosen by the advertiser. Competitive keywords that have a higher search volume will be more expensive because a greater amount of people are exposed to the ad. Social media platforms have PPC ads in various formats, including images with text, videos, carousel ads and text ads.

On Google, pay-per-click ads are shown above organic search results with the word “Sponsored” above them. 

Businesses that want to do pay-per-click advertising on Google would use Google Ads. Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms also have PPC ads.

How to improve your pay-per-click (PPC) strategy

Your campaign’s effectiveness depends on various factors, including how much you spend, keyword organization and PPC landing page optimization. Consider the following strategies for improving your PPC approach.

1. Choose the most effective keywords for your PPC campaign.

Choosing the right keywords is an integral part of a successful PPC strategy. You must ensure that you bid on the most relevant keywords for your business. Google Ads garner 64.6 percent of clicks for high commercial intent keyword searches, according to WordStream. (Commercial intent refers to the intention to buy a product or service.)

Use Google Ads Keyword Planner to research and select the most effective keywords. However, understand that your competitors will likely also use these exact keywords. To avoid wasting money on generic terms that won’t bring in quality leads, focus on bidding for keywords that encapsulate the buyer’s intent. 

Be specific about what customers will search for, and use descriptive keywords that include the company or brand name, product or service type, location, and appropriate words, like “affordable,” “reliable” or “guaranteed.” You can even use a competitor’s name to reach people searching for that company.

2. Focus on providing value first in your PPC campaign.

When spending money to attract visitors to your website, you must be laser-focused on successful lead conversions. It all starts with providing a valuable experience for your visitors. 

While conversions are critical to a successful PPC campaign, few PPC accounts have effective customer tracking measures. Active tracking helps you tailor the user experience and provide added value for each person who comes across your content.

3. Use long-tail keywords in your PPC campaign.

Many individuals and businesses stick with short-tail keywords (containing just a few words) because these terms are general enough to cover broad topics. Short-tail keyword examples include “how to lose weight” and “best auto insurance.” 

However, this strategy is a recipe for blowing your advertising budget with minimal results. You’ll target a vast audience and get many clicks, but your campaign won’t be focused enough to reach your target audience.

A long-tail keyword of at least five words, like “how to lose weight and gain muscle,” will likely get you better results. Although it’s more specific and may not attract as many clicks as a short-tail keyword, the individuals who click your ad will be more likely to convert because your solution meets a specific need. 

Long-tail keywords have an increased likelihood to appear more frequently and attract attention from users seeking your solution. For the best results, find long-tail keywords that seamlessly fit with your product or solution.

4. Utilize negative keywords to limit wasted clicks.

Whenever someone clicks on your ad, you are charged. Sometimes, however, they are actually looking for something completely different. For example, someone who wants to apply for a job posting with your company may see your ad and click on it. Although there is no probability of making a sale from this person, you still pay for the click. In this case, inputting a negative keyword will prevent people searching for certain phrases from spotting and accidentally clicking on your ad. In this example, you could include your company’s name and the phrase “jobs” and “open positions” as negative keywords. 

You can also use negative keywords to narrow in on shoppers looking for a specific or specialized product. If you sell waterproof rugged hiking boots, you could use “fashion boots” or “high-heeled boots” as negative keywords.

5. Target prospective and returning customers in your PPC campaign.

People first click an ad to receive more information about a product or service, thus beginning the marketing journey. These potential customers are drawn to your ad’s focus and must receive value from your business to become customers.

Those further along the customer journey require a different approach. They know what your company provides and have an established buying intent. Consider retargeting these prospects and focusing on keywords suited for them. For example, if you have a social media marketing service, use terms such as “hire a social media team” instead of the more generic “social media agency.” 

Retargeting is vital because prospective customers typically need multiple touchpoints with a new brand before purchasing.

6. Have a call to action in your PPC campaign.

Every effective advertisement ends with a call to action (CTA). While the advertisement’s body should focus on providing value to the customer, the CTA must give a clear and actionable next step.

After potential customers receive immense value from your ad, what is the next logical step? Tell customers exactly what they must do to achieve the benefits you outlined in your ad. For example, a CTA could instruct prospects to visit your website, download a newsletter, join your email list or buy a product.

7. Focus on quality instead of quantity in your PPC approach.

After potential customers click your PPC ad, they must be presented with quality content on your website or landing page. At this point, you’ve paid for the click, and it’s time to ensure you get the most from your PPC expenditures.

It’s crucial to provide content that is inherently convincing and optimized for converting consumers. Consider why prospects come to your website and how you can provide value — and the promise of additional value — after they engage with your business. 

8. Consider geotargeting in your PPC strategy.

Geotargeting can help you make full use of each click. Different audiences from various locations have unique preferences. Geotargeting lets you run various campaigns in different places, allowing a degree of customizability in your marketing efforts to meet diverse preferences and needs.

9. Optimize your PPC campaign for mobile.

There is a marked difference between desktop content and mobile content. Because a growing number of people use mobile devices to access the internet, you must create responsive PPC ads that are optimized for the mobile experience.

According to the GSMA’s Mobile Economy report, 5.3 billion people subscribe to mobile services, and 400 million more are expected to do so by 2025. This vast reach means mobile device marketing is crucial, and businesses must have a strong focus on media that functions and converts well on mobile. 

Ensure your strategy aligns with where your customer base is trending, and create mobile-friendly content to stay competitive.

10. Concentrate on ad groups in your PPC campaign.

Relevance is essential to getting an ad group to score highly on the quality metric. Every ad group you utilize must have a particular purpose. It’s far more effective to create unique ad groups for keywords when you want more conversions and clicks than to target everyone with the same ad. Ad groups are best utilized when there is a narrow target audience, especially when only a small percentage of online consumers think ads on a site apply to them.

Use market segmentation to differentiate your ad groups by customer journey placement, location or demographics. For example, if you have a real estate company, a first-time homebuyer will have different needs than someone looking to downsize once their kids have moved out. 

11. Understand that timing is everything in a PPC campaign.

Your ads must catch the optimal customer conversion time in your target demographic. Studies have shown that PPC interactions increase or decrease over the day, with peak times between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Some experts say Tuesdays and Fridays are best for PPC campaigns. 

However, your industry and specific customer demographics will determine the best times for your PPC campaign. Learn what works for your industry, and integrate it into your advertising strategy.

12. Send ad traffic to relevant landing pages.

You will get the best ROI for your pay-per-click campaign if you send traffic from each ad to a custom-built landing page rather than to your website’s homepage. A general website can be overwhelming to someone who had a reason for clicking and expects specific content related to that intent. PPC visitors sent to your website will result in the same amount of traffic but less time spent on your site and fewer conversions.

The design of the landing page should reflect the keywords in the ad and the interests of the person who clicked it. This makes the landing page specific to the viewer’s motivation for clicking the PPC ad and increases your chance of getting this person to take action, whether that is filling out a lead form or making a purchase. It also allows you to easily track conversion metrics for each ad to see which ones are most effective.

13. Optimize ads with A/B testing.

Running a PPC campaign on faith virtually guarantees a waste of your money. Instead, use A/B testing to see which elements generate the most clicks and conversions.

A/B testing involves creating two similar ads (ads A and B) and changing one element at a time to see what works best. Test all campaign components, including the ad’s headline, targeting and message, as well as the landing page’s headline, copy and design. In each instance, optimize the ads by eliminating poor performers for each element. This will give you the best performing headlines, images, text and targeting combinations.

14. Every so often, update ads with new ad content.

When you keep the same targeting, some people will see identical ads over and over again. Even the most highly optimized ads will eventually get old and stop being as effective. So it is important to keep it fresh by changing up your ad copy. This includes headlines, images or videos, if any, and ad copy.

Repeat the process for A/B testing to get a new set of fully optimized pay-per-click ads.

15. Allocate more budget to better performing platforms and campaigns.

Google ads have a daily PPC budget, but they don’t discriminate by ad or ad group. When you do your A/B testing, get rid of poor performing ads and ad groups, so your budget is diverted to the best performing ads. You may also want to use some of your budget to try different advertising platforms where you have less competition and get more bang for your buck. When you discover a better performing platform, shift all or part of your budget to it.

16. Take advantage of ad extensions.

Ad extensions are free ad features that can help you improve your click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. Some are automatic, while others need to be set up manually. Here are some to consider:

• Sitelinks: These are sub links that take visitors to a specific page in your website. You can customize the headlines and copy for the sitelinks to show visitors the benefits or content they will get when they click. For example, if you have an e-commerce store, you can include sitelinks to your most popular category pages.
• Lead form extensions: These will show up on mobile devices on Google Ads or under video campaigns for users who are signed into their Google accounts. It gives viewers a direct link to your lead capture forms.
• Structured snippets: This is text that you can write to make your ad more compelling. You will need to have at least three snippets written for any of them to show up. They should add descriptive details related to your header. 
• Callouts: These allow you to add additional text with your unique selling proposition or a particularly compelling feature, such as free shipping.
• Call extensions: If you want people to respond to your ad by calling, use this ad extension to add your phone number to your ad.
• Location extensions: Local businesses can direct potential foot traffic to their location by adding their neighborhood or address here.
• Affiliate extensions: If you distribute your product through retail partners, direct customers to your major retailers with this extension.
• Price extensions: For popular products, display product info along with prices below the main part of your ad.

PPC strategy mistakes to avoid

To avoid wasting money on PPC ads, steer clear of the following common mistakes.

1. Don’t focus too much on traffic generation.

Although a PPC campaign will generally lead to an uptick in web traffic, this shouldn’t be the only goal. When your keywords or promotional offers are too general, you’ll get plenty of website visitors, but most won’t be people who are genuinely interested in or able to buy your product. 

Each PPC campaign should have specific, measurable goals that directly benefit the company. For example, if you’re new to PPC, you should focus on generating more quality leads. Perhaps you keep customers on your website, but they don’t buy. In this case, improving conversions may be your goal. You may have visitors who come to your site and make a purchase but only spend a small amount of money. In this case, your campaign’s goal may be to increase buyers’ purchase amounts.

2. Don’t send visitors to a poorly designed or slow site.

You can have the most effective PPC ads in the world, but if your site or landing page is poorly designed, slow or confusing, those visitors will bounce, and you’ll waste your PPC budget. 

Speed, website design and clarity matter. Ensure your overall website and landing page are clean and fast, with intuitive navigation and clearly written copy. These factors make a good impression on customers and make it much more likely that they’ll take the desired action.

3. Don’t forget to include a CTA. 

Once visitors are on your landing page, you must tell them what you want them to do. Otherwise, they’ll usually look around and wander off to another website. Make it clear what the next step is and why they should take it. 

For example, you may want them to sign up for your email list. If so, put a quick and easy subscription form where they can easily see it above the fold; use graphics and bold colors so it’s easy to spot. Tell them what they can expect to get if they sign up, so they have an incentive to do so. If you want them to buy from your e-commerce site, include your most popular products on the homepage, and tell them about any special promotions. 

4. Don’t put too many links on the landing page.

Ideally, you’ll send PPC visitors to a landing page instead of to your general website. Landing pages are laser-focused on moving visitors through the sales funnel, while websites serve a more general purpose, making it easier for users to become distracted. 

Your landing page should present the action you want the visitor to take. The copy should tell them why they should take that action — and nothing else. When paying for traffic with PPC, you want to ensure that the maximum number of people will convert, and a focused landing page is the best way to do that. 

For even more effectiveness, have multiple landing pages that pair with specific PPC campaigns and targeting efforts. 

5. Don’t neglect to test and track KPIs.

You can measure results against the key performance indicators (KPIs) in your PPC dashboard, including click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per acquisition and cost per click. 

Based on your offering’s pricing and customer lifetime value, you can decide which KPIs are most crucial and make decisions from there. For example, maybe your cost per acquisition is high, but you sell a high-end product that customers regularly reorder, so your customer lifetime value is also high. In that case, as long as your conversion rate is reasonable, you are likely doing the right thing.

6. Don’t ignore the big picture.

Although it’s essential to analyze KPIs, it’s also crucial to examine your PPC campaign as a whole. Are you spending more on advertising than you’re earning from new business? 

Measure the ROI of your PPC campaign (net profit divided by ad spend), and find your return on ad spend (revenue generated divided by ad spend). Perhaps your ads are being shown to existing customers who are just scooping up your free giveaway, or maybe your campaigns are not as effective as they could be.

PPC ad profitability is an art form

Pay-per-click advertising can be highly effective if done right, but it takes some trial and error to produce great results. PPC campaigns aren’t as straightforward as they may appear. Like any other business aspect, running profitable PPC ads can be an art form. Ensure you scrutinize every nuance of your ad campaign, and take the time and effort to present an optimal strategy. Your successful PPC campaign will be worth the trouble.

Wes Smart contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.