Lots of people think they know the ins and outs of Google AdWords and try their hand at it. Which is what business owners should do, try it out for themselves and have a feel of what AdWords is capable of. But, not long after this, they throw in their towel because they just drained their budget without gaining any real results. Whilst putting together a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign and watching traffic increase on your websites sounds great, it is far beyond reality. In an ideal world, sure, this would be perfect, but unfortunately a successful PPC campaign requires testing and knowledge. This is why engaging a PPC agency (us!) can drive higher ROI. Read our PPC tips below.

1. Optimise your landing page

This means improving aspects of your landing page to increase conversions. Instead of wasting time and money on completely changing your entire landing page because something isn’t working, use data to improve it. You can survey what your audience expect and like before it even goes live.

Landing pages are never a one and done deal. You have to continuously analyse data and tweak the page accordingly. Keep an eye on your conversions. Always identify the problem with your landing page and see what problems specifically contribute to low conversion rates. Use visual data reports to see visitor behaviour on your site. For example, use a heat map to give you a visual overview of where your visitors are clicking. Or even a scroll map to show which parts of the page visitors spend most time on.

So, don’t be one of those people that know something isn’t working, so they change everything. It’s like that old saying, throw spaghetti onto a wall and see which one sticks and which ones fall, don’t use this approach with PPC. Make changes that are backed up with data and reason. This is an important PPC tips to note down.

2. Track. Track. Track.

It is so important to track everything from the beginning. A lot of business owners dive into the PPC world blindly. Don’t be one of them. Tracking allows you to see where your money is going, how much you are spending and what keywords are producing the best results. You can also track how much revenue is coming in by conversion tracking.

We are so saddened to hear that only 50% of active Google Adwords accounts implement conversion tracking. According to Dan Norris, websites that don’t employ conversion strategies generally convert at less than 1%. Ones that do, convert at 5% or higher.

Not implementing this is like driving through a thunderstorm, in the dark, without your glasses. Without this, there is no way in telling whether your marketing efforts are working or not. So please, track your conversions people!

3. Utilise site links

Take advantage of site links so that you can include several calls to action in your ad copy. You can test different calls to action in order to entice visitors and get that increased click through. Every little improvement you make to the campaign has more of an impact on your overall spend than you actually think. This is more psychological than anything else.

Giving potential visitors more options and choice through calls to action entices them onto your website. Just by adding site links, you can improve your click through rate significantly. So, don’t let this feature go to waste because even if this small change looks insignificant, it can play a huge part in whether users click on your website or a competitor’s website.

4. Mix PPC and SEO

It’s always a good idea to combine PPC advertising with organic search marketing. If you’re not doing this then you need to. When PPC and SEO is combined, it is so effective that it can actually dominate search results. When a potential customer sees that a company is owning the space in both PPC and SEO, they are more likely to click.

This is because psychologically, they view the brand as influential. This works on both sides, as some customers trust organic results more and some click on the paid results more. So it’s a win-win situation. You’ll cover all the bases regarding types of customers. Want proof? Just Google ‘American Express’. Take a look at how they have a paid ad at the top of the searches; the top listing result AND the sidebar information on the right hand side. You too can dominate Google real estate by mixing PPC with SEO. These PPC tips will surely help you improve your AdWords game.

Author

  • Alicia, the digital marketing dynamo herself, is our digital marketing Manager at Monumental. We are yet to find something our Indonesian-Belgian princess can't do. Prior to discovering Monumental, Alicia finished an honours degree in Sociology at the University of Kent and began building her marketing network in the Middle East. Having graced us with her stunning social channel aesthetics and unrivalled powers of Influencer marketing and SEO for several years now, it's no wonder she's giving us that side-eye.