During these day-modern challenges, it’s smart to be proactive about your PPC management. Set a goal to improve your click-through rates with a nuanced PPC campaign. With a few strong PPC strategies in your digital toolbox, it’s not difficult to encourage audience click-throughs.
Continuous updates and data-driven decisions are critical components of successful PPC strategy. This is true whether you handle all of your PPC campaigning internally or use PPC management software.
Modern software solutions are only as savvy as their users, which is why it’s your job to root out and implement smart PPC strategies.
Here are six PPC strategies to improve your click-through rates.
1. Optimize Your PPC Campaigns for Voice Search
Voice search is here to stay. The Internet of Things saw to that, and smart devices are prominent in people’s homes. According to Statista, 42% of worldwide internet users made at least one voice search in the first quarter of 2019, and that number continues to rise.
Grab this opportunity in 2021 to optimize your PPC campaigns for voice search.
Voice search queries are often lengthier and more nuanced than traditional text searches. It’s easy to incorporate voice search into your PPC strategies:
- Use a search query report to check for voice search queries.
- Filter relevant search queries.
- Utilize a keyword tool to finalize keywords.
- Include data-driven negative keywords.
It’s this simple to optimize your PPC campaign for voice search.
2. Consider Mobile-Specific PPC Ads
Mobile devices represent more than half of all internet searches, which means you better be targeting mobile device users when developing your PPC strategies. So how do you do this?
First, make sure your website is optimized for mobile. Then, use these mobile-specific PPC campaign best practices:
- Utilize ad extensions.
- Strengthen your keywords to quickly appeal to users.
- Include offers and incentives.
- Schedule your PPC ads at optimal times of the day.
- Use emojis and symbols where appropriate.
There were more than 200 million mobile search users in the United States in 2020. Mobile users were responsible for more than 60% of Google’s organic search traffic the previous year. That’s a considerable piece of the market share.
An example of a promotion extension in Google Ads.
3. Utilize Promotion Extensions
You want to use up as much of the available online real estate as you can for your PPC campaigns. Fortunately, as search engines evolve, more foundational space is available. Promotion extensions are a great place to start.
Google’s promotion extensions give you the ability to advertise offers and highlight special pricing within your PPC ad.
Google claims that promotion extensions can increase click-through rates by 10-15%. The best way to use promotion extensions is to make them special. Use promotion extensions around big holidays or during annual sales events. Try to create a sense of exclusivity and opportunity rather than filling this space with always-on $5 coupons or the like.
4. Master Negative Keywords
Negative keywords can be just as relevant to your PPC campaign as their traditional counterparts. That’s why it’s in your best interest to master the use of negative keywords for maximum impact.
Negative keywords define the scope of search terms that you don’t want your ads to appear around. The more refined your negative keywords are, the more relevant and targeted your actual click-throughs will be.
Tips for mastering negative keywords:
- Use the Search Term Reports to identify which keywords are triggering your ads.
- From these reports, identify all the terms that should not be triggering your ads. This is your negative keyword list.
- Define negative keyword scope (broad, phrase match, exact match).
- Consider current event negative keywords.
- Differentiate between campaign and ad group negative keywords.
5. Target Using Remarketing Lists
A great way to recapture visitors who left your site without making a purchase is to incorporate remarketing tactics into your PPC campaigns. According to MailChimp, only about 3% of visitors to your online store actually make a purchase the first time. That means 97% will leave without buying anything. You want to get those people back through your PPC ads if possible.
Benefits of strong remarketing efforts in your PPC campaigns:
- Large-scale reach
- Well-timed targeting
- Focused advertising
- Easy ad creation
- Efficient pricing
Remarketing clicks are relatively cheap. If you can recapture even a fraction of that 97% you missed, it’s worth the effort.
6. Strengthen Your CTAs
Calls to action (CTAs) are critical hinge points for prospects prior to committing to a purchase or service. CTAs are used just about everywhere in search engine optimization in one form or another. Strong CTAs do a lot to prompt user action and encourage a direct funnel journey, and the same holds true for PPC campaigns.
Sometimes, a good CTA is the only thing that stands between a searcher and a conversion. That’s why you want your CTAs to be as strong, relevant, and compelling as possible.
Web marketing guru Neil Patel provides some tips for how to create the perfect call to action:
- Advertise a free trial
- Write benefit-oriented CTAs
- Offer instant gratification
- Appeal to curiosity
- Offer a solution to a problem
- Leverage an urge to belong
- Use a cliffhanger
- Offer an extra bonus
With both Google Ads and Bing Ads, you customize the path of your ad’s display URL. This is also a great place to reinforce a CTA.
Outdated PPC Strategies That Don't Work Anymore
It’s important to recognize old PPC strategies that just don’t hold the weight they once did. Avoid the following outdated PPC strategies:
- Target impression shares: Don't spend money on maximizing impressions, unless your goal is brand recognition only. You'll get more value out of your spend by limiting ad spending and putting CPC caps on your campaigns.
- Single-keyword ad groups: Search is more nuanced and subtle than single keywords these days, especially with the prominence of voice search.
- Branded keyword no-bids: PPC campaign managers used to rely on SEO for branded keyword/phrase targeting. Mix your PPC and SEO liberally. Branded keywords aren’t no-nos anymore.
Refine your PPC Campaigns for Better Click-Throughs
PPC campaigns will continue to evolve and adapt. Searchers will continue to search, and it’s your job to be there with relevant, attractive PPC ads when they do.
To improve your keyword research: appeal to voice search users, optimize for mobile, and craft impactful CTAs to elevate your PPC campaign game.
