PPC Management

Pay-per-click online advertising has been around for some time and is still very much relevant. The reigning king of PPC management platforms, of course, is Google AdWords, but Facebook and other emerging platforms are fantastic in many cases.

Through Google AdWords and similar search engine advertising services, businesses can bid and pay to appear as sponsored listings and content in search results and content streams, thereby paying to have customers delivered to your site.

PPC vs. SEO

There has been some debate about the use of PPC management services to drive traffic when it can be done for free and organically via proper SEO implementation. But while there are different camps, the truth is that both can and probably should be used to compliment each other. PPC remains as important as ever if managed properly. PPC can bring in traffic immediately and it can be turned off like a light switch. You cam also completely control your budget and exactly where and on what keywords or specific demographic, geographic and psychographic profiles you are hunting for.

Like SEO, the key to AdWords is keywords and a good story. Like SEO, AdWords, has to be properly managed for ultimate effectiveness, including thorough planning and timely execution. This can all be analyzed through AdWords, which then provides us with an arsenal of knowledge that can then be used to continue to optimize for clicks and conversions in PPC as well as inform organic SEO and social media strategies.

Combined, SEO and AdWords have consistently proven to be effective for business development and increased return on investment right away and on an ongoing basis. Many companies have seen as much as 500 percent growth when deploying these strategies effectively. To be fair, many folks in the marketing world talk big and act confident but at the end of the day they often deliver little or nothing. With digital marketing and especially PPC Management, the devil is in the details in order to reduce costs and boost conversions you have to be good and understand the mind of your prospects. We have had clients tell us to “turn it off” repeatedly because they were getting too much new business. They weren’t ready to scale or handle all the calls or business. So don’t just throw money at Google, weave a net of success with optimized PPC management combined with powerful copy and conversion elements to reduce costs and grow your results.

Dispelling the PPC Myth

Are you one of those people that think PPC is a waste of money and doesn’t work? Did you try it but it failed to produce leads or simply just gave money to Google? It’s probably because your ad and landing page told a boring story that nobody cared about. If people are searching a keyword then they’re trying to solve a problem, they don’t just search for the heck of it. But if you didn’t hear from them it’s because somebody had a better answer to their problem.

Even if you are number one at the top of the page, if your ad sucks and, worse yet, if your landing page or website looks like everybody else and says the same stuff as your competitors, then guess what, you are wasting your money, big time.

We won’t even run an ad until we have a better story that stands out in your marketplace against your competitors. We know exactly where the ads are going to deploy and we make sure we have an unfair advantage going in. The real magic comes when your PPC, maps and SEO start working together and taking over the page. That’s when the ROI really starts to become clear.

SEO Research

As briefly mentioned, AdWords is key for SEO, they work together like peanut butter and jelly. This includes keyword search, keyword match types, negative keywords and the ability to analyze performance and inform SEO efforts with quickly won PPC insights.

This research can then be applied to your content, funnels and landing pages to make sure more prospects are getting what they want and solving their problems with you.

PPC advertising also gives the manager the ability to properly analyze what to track, what is working, what is not and how the competition is doing. This also means the ability to launch and scale at will and analyze cost per conversion. A good target conversion rate of at least 20% is good to start. Sometimes we do better sometimes competition and market forces make 20% a serious challenge, but if you aren’t converting near 20% on your landing page and your spending money to get people there, then make sure to analyze and test things to increase those conversions. Think about your ad copy, your offer, your copy and messaging, your conversion elements and layout. Are you telling the right story for your business? Are you standing out in the marketplace powerfully above your competitors for your ideal target market?

Getting this right ultimately means a better Click Through Rate, which is used to gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing. CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown.

A well-managed PPC strategy means spending less and getting more in return. It also means making sure your business is a competitor and has the ability to adapt freely before paying for a darned thing.