PPC Optimization Strategies: 4 Tips to Get the Results You Want

When it comes to pay-per-click marketing, there’s one thing we’ve found – most companies are wasting valuable dollars on their existing campaigns. And, more often than not, there are more leads to be found with some effort and optimization.

In this article, we’ve highlighted some of our favorite PPC optimization strategies, including optimizing your:

1. Target audience: Make sure you’re targeting the right people with the right search terms at the right time.
2. Creatives and messaging: Optimize your ad content – relevance is key if you want to create ads that convert.
3. Landing page and user experience: Create an awesome landing page experience with a single, CTA, social proof, and relevant content.
4. Measuring and reporting: In order to optimize ads, you need to know what to track and make sure your measurements are accurate.

Below, we’ll dive deeper into each of these with tactical tips to help you improve the performance of your PPC campaigns.

Looking for an introduction to PPC marketing? Click here to learn the basic fundamentals of Google Ads.

1. Target Audience: Target the Right People for PPC Optimization

First, you should always nail down the who, what, and when of any campaign – as far as you possibly can – before spending a single dollar. In industries like law, a single click could cost you $400 or more, so targeted promotion is key so that you don’t waste valuable dollars.

Here are a few ideas for target audience optimization:

Choose the Right Demographics

Neglecting your demographics can drain your budget – fast! Plus, you can’t create relevant content if you don’t know who you’re writing for. The number of demographic targeting opportunities often surprises our clients. Your targeting can take into account such details as:

• Geography
• Age
• Gender
• Household income range
• Marital status
• Parental status
• Education level attained

Fix Your Search Term Performance

More keywords aren’t necessarily better. Instead, go for a small keyword group that’s highly relevant to your ad’s content. Consider your audience’s search terms and intent to draw conclusions on which keywords to target.

Pick the Right Times

If you’re not available to speak with and vet leads 24/7, you shouldn’t run ads at all hours. Choose the days and times your audience is most active online while considering your target audience’s time zone.

Other PPC Campaign Optimization Tips for Targeting

Have you already implemented those tips? Here are a few more to look into:

• Audiences: You want to ensure you leverage every available tool, including lookalikes, retargeting, life events, and affinities.
• Budget allocation: Are you spreading your budgets across each channel to maximize conversions?
• Devices: Over half of all PPC clicks happen on mobile devices.
• Negative keywords: Have you told Google which keywords you DON’T want to pay for? If not, that means you’re probably paying for them.

2. Creatives and Messaging: Use the Right Messaging for PPC Optimization

Next, we’ll revisit the content of our ads to make sure they follow PPC best practices.

Here are a few ways to optimize the messaging of your PPC campaign:

Research Your Competition

Run a search for your target keyword. Note the type of content and messaging your competitors use. How can you fill a gap or outdo them?

Rethink Your Value Proposition

What’s your value proposition?  That is, what are the features and benefits of your product or service that make it distinctly different and better than your competitors’ products/services? By infusing your value props into your ad messaging and landing page copy, you’ll be able to quickly beat your average click-through and conversion rates because you are clearly and concisely conveying to your target audience why your product/service is so much better than everyone else’s.

(The average click-through rate across all industries is just 3.15% in search and less than 0.5% on the display network, so making sure your value propositions shine through is essential.)

Make Sure Ad Content is Super Relevant

Relevancy is incredibly important to PPC. You should work to narrow down keyword groups for ads so that all ads shown become increasingly relevant to the searches being made. Similarly, the ad content shown should be relevant to the search terms used to make searchers feel confident that your results will meet their needs.

Other PPC Optimizations for Messaging and Creatives

Have you already implemented those tips? Here are a few more to look into:

• A/B testing: It’s smart to run multiple ad variants so you can see which performs best across your target audience.
• Imagery: You need images to grab attention, but they must be completely relevant to our keyword topic and harmonious with our campaign’s goal.
• Call-to-action: Are you encouraging a single concise CTA and does it match our campaign’s end goal?

3. Landing Page and User Experience: Improve Your Landing Page Experience for PPC Optimization

In addition to looking at your target audience and ads, you should also revisit your website’s landing pages to make sure they’re optimized for conversions and serve the needs of your audience.

Here are a few ideas for landing page optimization:

Ensure Landing Page Content Matches the Ad’s Purpose

In addition to focusing on the relevancy of ads to the search being made, your landing page must must must also match the ad campaign’s keyword intent. Not only does this improve your metrics and conversions, but relevance also improves your Quality Score. A solid QS ensures your ads show up in the best locations for clicks.

Optimize the Landing Page for Conversions

You should streamline your landing page with a single purpose and/or request that will work toward solving the search query and keyword. Not every ad needs to demand a sales conversion. Depending on the keyword intent and our product/service, you could ask for:

• Email sign-ups
• Lead magnet downloads or requests
• Clicks to another web page
• Social media follows

Don’t Forget to Display Social Proof

Some people can be distrustful of advertisements. Consider adding the following to your landing page to help prove your expertise and trustworthiness:

• Reviews
• Testimonials
• Accolades
• Photos and user-generated content

Other PPC Optimization Tips for the Landing Page Experience

Have you already implemented those tips? Here are a few more to look into:

• Website speed: Your landing page should load in less than three seconds.
• Aesthetic: You’ll want to match your brand’s colors, identity, and overall website vibe.
• Value prop: Don’t forget to include your value proposition again on the landing page!
• Mobile: Does your mobile version of the page look as intended?
• Content value: Your page should solve a specific problem and be worth the click.

Turn your landing pages into user-friendly conversion engines. Learn about our conversion rate optimization services.

4. Measurement and Reporting: Adjust Your Measurements and Reporting for PPC Optimization

One of the most valuable traits of PPC is its ability to provide very detailed measurements and reports of its performance. By revisiting your data collection processes, you will likely uncover opportunities to improve current campaigns and/or inform decisions for future campaigns.

Here are a few ideas for measurement/reporting optimization:

Revisit Your KPIs

KPI stands for key performance indicator – or a measurable goal that allows you to work toward and achieve a desired business result. KPIs can give you a better idea of which actions are providing results, so you can focus on more of those actions in the future. We often find opportunities to shift a company’s existing KPIs related to PPC in a manner that provides cost savings, more clicks, more leads, etc.

Double-Check Your Tracking Accuracy

If your pixels and parameters aren’t firing properly, your metrics won’t be accurate. Parameter tracking is vital because it will tell you which keywords, displays, and apps are driving the most conversions. This can help inform where additional dollars will have more success in the future.

Pinpoint Your Source of Truth

The source of truth related to your PPC campaigns is the one report or metric that helps to define the overall performance and success of your campaigns toward your KPIs. Oftentimes companies have a hard time selecting a single source of truth or aggregating data from multiple sources in a way that truly answers the question – how effective is my PPC campaign, really?

About Pareto PPC

Pareto PPC is a digital advertising agency specializing in digital strategy, pay-per-click marketing, and analytics for online businesses. Our sole focus is to make our clients more money by using proven PPC channels and tactics that actually move your business’ needle.

If your business’ digital growth has stalled, you’re lacking strategic direction, or you’re just looking for a partner to bring your business to new heights, schedule a free consultation with one of our PPC firm experts. You’ll get a free, no-obligation PPC account audit and, at the very least, will walk away with knowledge and recommendations for how to grow your business online.