6 PPC Marketing Tips to Improve Your Business

This one seems like a no brainer, but I would be remiss in not driving this point home. When a person searches on Google, they expect only results that are relevant to what they are searching for, so why should you give them any less with your ads? Keeping your ads relevant means choosing keywords that the customer is likely to use when searching for your product and communicating exactly and concisely what your business is and what you have to offer.

When it comes to PPC marketing, you’re more likely to garner clicks if your ads do more than just communicate the fact that your product or service exists. You should give your customers a reason to click your link right then and there. For example, an ad that reads “50% off all red women’s shoes at Sally’s Shoe Store” is likely going to be more successful than an ad that simply states “Women’s shoes in many styles at Sally’s Shoe Store”. Odds are that if someone is searching for women’s shoes, they are already in the market to buy. Why not give them a reason to choose you over the competitors.

The homepage of your site and the landing page of your ad shouldn’t be one in the same. The quality of your landing page is an extremely important factor in the calculation of your ad ranking. If you want your ad to appear high up on the results, then your landing page should be rich with content related to your keywords, products and services. In addition, you’ll want to choose a landing page that immediately offers a chance for customer conversion. For example, if your ad offers 50% off on red shoes, then your landing page should be the selection of discounted red shoes. This makes your landing page both more relevant and more likely to result in a customer conversion.

Let’s say you own a bakery in Boston that sells specialty cupcakes. If cupcake enthusiasts from outside the Boston Area are clicking on your ads, then you would be wasting money because those people are unlikely to physically come into your store. Luckily, AdWords allows you to localize your campaign based on IP addresses and keywords such that only people near your location will see your ads.

Negative keywords allow you to specify words that will not cause your ads to appear. This may seem like a menial feature, but it is actually very useful in controlling your budget and honing in on serious customers. For example, if you were a high end custom tailor, you might want to include negative keywords like “budget,” “cheap” or “free” to hide your ads from frugal customers looking to buy low cost suits. In addition, it is wise to include negative keywords like “job”, “jobs”, “resume” and “internship” to prevent your ads from appearing on career related searches  – unless of course you are advertising a job opening.

Now more than ever, people are using their smartphones to search the web on the go. In keeping with the nature of mobile phone use, when users want something, they want it NOW. What does this mean for your ad campaign? It means that mobile users are easier to convert because they are likely already out and looking for a product like yours. Think of it this way: if a person searches for “burgers” on their smartphone, odds are he/she is out looking for something to eat. An optimized array of mobile ads can make the difference between customers walking into your place of business or the burger joint down the street.