The basic goal of every digital marketing agency should be to help their clients build an audience. In order to do that, they need to get their target market’s attention. Today, one of the best ways to do that is through PPC advertising on search engines like Google and Bing and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This guide will give you the basics of how PPC works and why you should use it in your digital marketing agency.
Why are we seeing this shift towards PPC?
This year more than ever before, digital marketing agencies are reporting that they are using paid search (or pay-per-click advertising) as a part of their strategy to acquire new customers. Why? Two reasons: conversion rates and return on investment. Paid search converts at extremely high rates—often exceeding 20%. And because you’re only paying when someone clicks on your ad (as opposed to wasting your budget with impressions), ROI can be exceptionally strong, too. If you’re not incorporating PPC into your digital marketing agency yet, it may be time to start!
The benefits of having PPC in your digital marketing toolkit
The beauty of PPC advertising lies in its ability to target very specific demographics and niches with laser-like precision. If you’re a digital marketing agency and one of your clients is selling yoga wear, for example, you can create an ad that targets users looking for yoga pants in a 10-mile radius around your client’s headquarters.
The point here is that your ads are hyper-focused on people who are likely interested in what you have to offer—and it’s hard to beat such targeted messaging when it comes to sales conversions. This allows digital marketing agencies like MediaTrix, which offers pay-per-click services as part of its overall digital marketing strategy, flexibility in crafting messages for their clients.
How can I find success with paid search campaigns?
At a digital marketing agency, it’s easy to look at paid search and think, Paid search isn’t that complex. Just set up some campaigns and run them for a few months, then turn them off for a few months, rinse and repeat. Sure, there are simple ways to do that—but these simple strategies aren’t exactly lucrative or optimized.
To find success with paid search, you need to have an ongoing presence in your industry; you need to be constantly testing new ad copy and landing pages; you need to be aware of what your competitors are doing so you can stay ahead of them, and you need to make sure your bids are always high enough so your ads show up first when potential customers search for relevant keywords. If you take shortcuts in any of these areas, your campaign will suffer.
What do I need to start using paid search effectively?
How to get started with paid search? It’s actually not as hard as you might think. Start by defining your niche and building a list of keywords that are relevant. Then identify how much you can spend on paid search marketing per month and divide it by 1,000 to determine how much you can spend per keyword. If there is competition for a given keyword, bid lower so that your ad appears in a higher position.
This will ensure you don’t waste money on clicks from people who aren’t interested in what you have to offer. Once you’ve done all of that, optimize your landing page so visitors convert into leads or customers. This will help improve your return on investment (ROI) for each keyword and overall paid search performance. And finally, make sure you have someone keeping an eye on your campaign—you wouldn’t want to miss out on any valuable opportunities!
What are some common mistakes when starting out with paid search?
If you’re new to running paid search campaigns, it’s easy to make some costly mistakes along the way. Here are a few common missteps to avoid when starting out with your paid search campaign
Not understanding that bidding on long-tail keywords is crucial:
It may seem like an obvious tip, but many businesses overlook the importance of including long-tail keywords in their paid search campaigns. Long-tail keywords tend to have higher conversion rates than shorter ones because they describe exactly what someone is looking for and therefore convert at a higher rate than general terms do. Plus, using longer keywords can help you secure top ad placement because Google prioritizes them over more general terms.
So if you aren’t already including long-tail keywords in your campaigns, now is as good a time as any to start! Because long-tail keywords typically perform better, we recommend only targeting two or three broad match keywords in addition to a handful of long-tails. That said, there are certainly exceptions—but in most cases, focusing on a short tail will pay off for your business.
Setting up too many campaigns at once:
We know it’s tempting to set up multiple different AdWords accounts when you first get started—after all, it seems like a great way to test out several different strategies. But setting up too many accounts at once can actually be counterproductive. Instead, focus on building one solid account before moving on to another one. Otherwise, you might end up wasting valuable time switching between different settings instead of creating targeted ads and landing pages that drive conversions.
Thinking about the cost per click (CPC) alone:
Sure, CPC matters—but don’t forget about other metrics such as cost per acquisition (CPA), which measures how much money you spend compared to how many customers come through your door after clicking on an ad. After all, no matter how low your CPC is, if you’re paying $500 for every customer who comes through your door, then you still won’t be making any money. Make sure to include CPA and ROI (return on investment) in your calculations so that you can accurately measure whether or not each individual campaign is working.
