PPC advertising is the method of generating targeted traffic by purchasing ads on search engines and other platforms that are intended to provide relevant results to the searcher’s keywords.
Although initial large revenues have been made, as well as large profits for some companies, many have fallen victim to fraud and mismanagement in the industry. The industry itself has been attacked and criticized, leaving many to avoid PPC advertising altogether.
However, with the right company and proper management, businesses can generate high profits from their PPC campaigns.
Here are 15 things a PPC agency won’t tell you, but that you should know before opting for their services:
1. Managing your account isn’t just about getting the most clicks
If you’re using a PPC agency to manage your PPC campaigns, it can be easy to assume that the objective is to get as many clicks as possible by all means necessary—including those that aren’t in accordance with Google’s guidelines.
Although getting a high number of clicks sounds like a good thing, not all clicked impressions are equal.
Optimizing a PPC campaign is all about ensuring your budget is spent wisely, so you want to be sure that your ad is getting clicks from people who are likely to convert.
If a large chunk of your budget is going toward getting promotional clicks from non-converting users (or people who aren’t even interested in what you’re offering), then that’s not a good use of money.
You can’t just purchase clicks that you’re not interested in—at least not without doing things like paying per lead or using a bidding system.
2. You need to monitor click-through rates and landing pages
The click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of total users who click on your ad divided by the total number of impressions it received.
CTR is useful when gauging the effectiveness of your advertising, whether it’s a search ad or a display ad on a website. For click-throughs to be generated by interested (not promotional) users, a CTR between 4% and 10% is ideal.
A landing page is a single page that you show to users when they land on your website from the search engine results page (SERP). The importance of well-constructed landing pages has been underlined in many studies.
The ideal landing page is one with a text WYSIWYG design (where the editor can directly change the text and images on the page, instead of having to right-click and edit HTML) that’s optimized to encourage conversion.
The landing page must also use a Call-to-Action (CTA—the action of getting users to click on your websites, such as a contact form or sign-up button).
By monitoring the effectiveness of your landing page and click-through rates, you can learn whether these are meeting your desired goals. If they’re not, then you can make adjustments accordingly.
3. A/B testing is essential for improving conversions
A/B Testing, also known as split testing or multivariate testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a web page to determine which one performs better.
For instance, A/B testing could compare the effectiveness of a landing page that contains a video with one that doesn’t, or it could compare the performance of let’s say two different headlines on your ad.
In order to run an A/B Test, you first create two or more variations of your landing page with unique elements such as different headlines and images.
Then you start sending some users to one version, and others to another. The next day, you check the data, and whichever one has received more conversions is the winner.
If you have no idea how to create your own A/B Test landing pages, it’s worth hiring a PPC agency that offers this service.
4. The PPC industry is rife with fraud and scams
There are countless companies out there that promise high-paying jobs to inexperienced individuals—without offering any form of training or compensation.
They offer to “train” you on how to run a PPC campaign, but they do so by making you pay them (in some form or another) for the opportunity to learn how to do it.
In addition, there are companies out there that offer services claiming they can get your site higher rankings in Google.
While you can get your site higher rankings for free with social media, blog posts, and other content on the web (all of which are essentially free) such companies will ask you to pay them upfront.
The only thing worse than those two—which is finding out after you’ve paid that they weren’t even able to improve your results—is finding out they were a scam company in the first place.
5. Your ads may not be targeting your ideal customers
PPC campaigns are all about keywords. Keywords help you get your ad in front of the exact audience that you want to see, which means they’re usually selected by the PPC agency.
However, you won’t always know if they’re targeting the right keywords or not.
Meaning, some will target related terms, others will target similar topics, and some may target too broad of a topic.
Not knowing if they’re targeting the right keywords can often lead to poor results, which is why it’s worth hiring a PPC agency that provides detailed reports with data on how their campaigns performed.
This way you implement any changes necessary to improve your campaign performance. It’ll take time, but the effort will ultimately pay off in the end.
6. The cost of a PPC campaign can fluctuate wildly
PPC campaigns are all about having the best results possible. If you’re using a different sort of advertising, then you can expect it to cost less, but if your PPC effort is only getting minimal results, then it’s unlikely that things will improve.
This means that you should expect the cost of your PPC campaign to go up or down depending on the success of your efforts. This is especially true if you’re a small business, because they may not have their own PPC agency.
It’s important to be mindful that the cost of advertising on multiple platforms can be more than paying one agency.
7. Keep track of the data
PPC campaigns are all about gathering data and knowing how to use it.
They work best when you’re able to keep abreast of the performance of your efforts and make changes as needed. Since they’re often complex, it can be hard to keep track of all the details needed to manage a campaign.
That’s why many PPC agencies that offer these services also provide detailed reporting, so you can rely on them for updates on how your campaign is performing.
If you’re managing your own campaign, then you can use a third-party tool such as Google Analytics to keep track of the performance of your PPC efforts.
It might seem like a lot of work at first, but once you’re familiar with it, managing a PPC campaign shouldn’t be too difficult.
8. You need to be patient
PPC campaigns are all about patience. You’re not going to expect results instantly and there’s no sure-fire way to ensure your PPC campaign will be a success.
It takes time for these efforts to pay off, which can mean more than a month before you see any improvements in performance. This is especially true if you’re just starting out and don’t have the funds for an advertising campaign.
However, if you’re patient, keep working with your PPC agency, and follow the advice they give you, then your efforts will likely pay off in the end.
9. Google could suspend or even penalize your account for violations of their policies
The thing about Google that often gets forgotten is that it’s a business like any other. And as such, it needs to make money. And in order to do so, they need to take measures against those who violate their policies and harm their business in some way.
This is especially the case for those people who try to exploit their system by using it to bring buyers and sellers together online.
For instance, if you’re an online retailer, then you might notice that your PPC campaign performance has gone down, or that when customers are searching for your products they can see (and buy) them at a lower price than yours.
This is fairly common for sellers who are not in the United States to take advantage of the different prices and sell their goods at a lower price than the ones offered by Google Shopping (the name usually used for such search results).
What’s more, even if you’re an experienced user your account could be suspended if you don’t comply with Google’s policies—essentially meaning that your business is closed down.
10. You need to know when to use PPC and when to use other marketing campaigns
It’s important to be mindful of whether your business would benefit more from PPC ads or another form of advertising.
For instance, if you’re a small e-commerce business selling a wide range of products, then you may want to consider a different form of a marketing campaign for your business.
For example, if a customer is looking for a specific product, then you may choose to use a PPC campaign to bring them to your site.
However, if they’re just browsing online looking for something to buy and you have products that fit their needs, you may want to use another form of marketing.
To learn more about how to get the most out of your digital marketing budget, reach out to today.
11. Your results will be dependent on your industry
It’s important to remember that every business is different.
This means that your PPC efforts may have a different result than someone in a similar industry, location, and with the same target audience.
For instance, if you’re in the manufacturing industry and you’re only promoting your products online and offline, you may be missing out on potential customers who search for your product online or are simply looking for something to buy in general.
If you’re selling handmade jewelry, then you may want to look at promoting it in places that offer coupons or some other incentive to encourage people to buy.
In fact, it may be a good idea to look in those categories and see what works best for your business.
12. You need to be strategic
PPC campaigns are all about being strategic. This means that you need to know what you’re doing, how to do it, and who will be involved in your efforts.
For instance, if you’re a small business that doesn’t have the money to advertise using PPC, then you’ll most likely have to rely on other forms of marketing such as SEO.
If you don’t know how to do SEO correctly and effectively, then your business will suffer the consequences.
13. You need to use actionable data
You will rarely get actionable data from PPC campaigns. It’s important to be able to make sense of them and know why they’re different from each other so you can use this information to adjust your strategy accordingly.
It’s important to note that PPC campaigns are all about finding actionable data and using it in your efforts. Whether you’re trying to make sales, build your brand, or send leads your way, you need to know what works for you.
To that end, it’s important to take the time to analyze these data and adjust your strategy accordingly.
14. You need to remember that processes are changing all the time
It’s important that you’re able to keep up with changes made by Google and Bing. This means that there could be small changes or updates released at any time which will affect the way PPC campaigns work.
For instance, this will be the case if Google decides to change their algorithms or if they decide to stop giving a specific type of campaign the same prominence.
So it’s important that you’re able to keep up with these changes and be ready in case they happen.
To learn more about advantages of PPC Marketing, reach out to today.
15. You need to be receptive to criticism and improvements
It’s important that you’re open to suggestions and are willing to make changes if necessary.
In fact, when you’re trying to establish a new PPC campaign in the first place, you may want to ask your PPC agency for help in adapting a proven Google system.
However, it’s also important that you read their advice carefully so as to make sure they’re suggesting the best options and that they have an incentive in helping you.
It’s important that you put the advice they give into action or at least know when it’s time to start using a new system.
AZ Creates, a digital marketing company that helps businesses expand their reach by providing them with an array of digital marketing services like PPC management and digital marketing consultation.