Don’t Get Burned by Pay-Per-Click! 5 Tips For Successful PPC Campaigns

I don’t know how many times friends and clients have asked me what I thought about PPC. The question is always, “is PPC a good way to increase website traffic and leads?” What’s the right answer? Many would say yes, it’s an effective way to generate leads. While others would say, no it’s a waste of money. As marketers, always searching for the latest techniques and trends to increase website traffic, what are we to do?

Pay-Per-Click Tips & Benefits

PPC or pay-per-click campaigns can be very effective if they are properly organized and managed. If you are using Google Adwords, it’s very easy to sign up and get started. If you’re not careful and setup up your campaign properly, you can waste a lot of money on worthless clicks. Here are a few tips that should help you get started with your campaign.

1. Target Your Keywords

Using a targeted keyword strategy is very important. The words that you choose to trigger the ad need to be relevant to the prospect and related to the ad that you’re going to serve. So, keep the keywords specific, not too broad and you’ll be on the right track to a successful PPC campaign.

2. Use A Landing Page

Your homepage is Not a landing page. Your ads have a targeted keyword message – send them to a landing page with a lead conversion form designed to convert visitors to leads. Your homepage provides a lot of information but it leads the prospect to a buffet which can lead them in any number of directions. Using an effective landing page will help you capture more leads or sales and ultimately a return on investment. (Read more about designing landing pages here)

3. Target by Location

Using a targeted location plays a very important role in a PPC campaign especially if you’re a local business. This is even more true now that Google has released a new update to Adwords. Using a targeted location campaign allows you to single out your ideal client and not be targeting Zimbabwe.

4. Using Mobile PPC

If you’re a local business and desire to run a pay-per-click campaign, then mobile PPC is a great avenue to take. If you incorporate the tips above then you can optimize the campaign for your location and serve ads accordingly. Mobile PPC targets buyers ready to make a more spontaneous buying decision. Include your phone number to capture those that might be unable to complete a lead capture form.

5. Determine Your PPC Budget

What is the best way to determine the size of your PPC ad budget? Certainly you’ll need to experiment a little and start small. To avoid loosing a lot of money on PPC, know your conversion rate and cost per click budget (CPC). If you have a $500 ad budget and your CPC is $1, your conversion rate is 10%, the product you sell draws a $100 gross revenue, then you need to sell only a few products to recover the cost of your ads. Of course you won’t know any of this until you start running your ads and analyzing your website traffic. Also consider that you don’t have to go “all in” with PPC, you can a experiment while managing your other marketing efforts.

Summery: PPC Vs Inbound Marketing

Getting started with Google Adwords can be a lucrative start to an internet marketing campaign, however if you’re looking to have long lasting marketing campaigns that last beyond the ad budget, look at inbound marketing. Inbound marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing. Discover today how an inbound marketing campaign can help your business succeed.