A Guest post by John Surdakowski, CEO at Avex Designs
Payperclick advertising is almost perfect. Set up your campaigns the right way and you can bring your best potential buyers directly to a landing page of your choosing. On social platforms, you can catch them at the perfect moment with an ad that will grab their attention.
The only problem? Every click is going to cost you a little bit of money.
That’s not so much of an issue if you’re earning a healthy return on investment from your ad budget. But, if it seems like your dollars are disappearing into thin air, the costs (and aggravations) can add up quickly.
Fortunately, there is a simple and reliable way to optimize your online advertising campaigns. All you have to do is think smaller. The bigger your campaigns are, and the more clicks and impressions they are generating, the greater the likelihood that at least some of those clicks are being wasted. But, when you concentrate all of your efforts on bringing your perfect buyers together with the ideal marketing message, your campaigns become less expensive and more effective.
Here are a handful of ways you can tighten up your PPC accounts to yield better longterm results without costing you an extra dime…
Be Specific with Your Audience
Just because someone could buy your product or service doesn’t mean they are a great prospect. Your online ads should be aimed at the men and women who are most likely to buy from you, both now and again in the future. Be specific with your audience and look for customers who will become longtime fans of your company.
Pay Close Attention to Account Settings
A lot of marketers never dig into their account settings, but that’s a big mistake. You want to ensure things like language, location, and time of day or week are all configured correctly. Otherwise, your ads could be shown to people who are never likely to buy anything from you.
Go Negative When Needed
In the same way that account settings can be used to weed out poor prospects, so can negative keywords and traits. If there is a certain type of searcher or buyer you know you don’t want to see your ads, much less click on them, be sure to filter them out within your campaigns. There’s no sense in paying for those clicks if you don’t have to.
Don’t Create Ads That Appeal to Everyone
Although it may go against everything you’ve heard and read in the past, a higher clickthrough rate on your ads isn’t always better. That’s because lots of people click on an ad that appeals to everyone, even if they aren’t likely to generate a conversion. More efficient ads, on the other hand, turn away poor prospects while getting the best potential customers to take notice.
Focus on Conversions
Ultimately, PPC is about generating leads and sales, not clicks to your website. So, regardless of what other indicators are telling you, pay close attention to which keywords are resulting in conversions. If you have some that are underperforming, try pausing them and seeing whether you have much of a drop off in revenue. You might find you don’t need as many ads as you think. The best payperclick advertising campaigns aren’t usually the biggest, but the most efficient and optimized. Are you wasting money on ads that could be used to find better customers, or improve your business in other ways?
John Surdakowski is CEO at Avex Designs, one of the fastest growing Digital Agencies in New York.
