Best PPC Practices To Improve Your SEO Game

Social media marketing is great! It’s one of the best strategies to increase brand presence and engagement. 

But is social media’s return on investment always guaranteed? Social media is enjoyable, and with the appropriate approach, you can achieve spectacular growth, but the average ROI is not always consistent. 

So, you’re undoubtedly wondering: Is there a social media marketing alternative?

Some tactics have been proven successful ever since search engines first appeared. They go by the names “Paid Search” and “Pay-per-Click”, and they still provide a good return on investment. When using Google to look for a topic, sponsored search advertising is visible to everyone.

It’s a great strategy to increase website or blog traffic and promote your products at the same time. If PPC is done correctly, it can be very effective.

In this blog, you are going to get all those best PPC practices that would help you gain high traffic and leads.

What Is A PPC Campaign?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a method of online advertising that enables you to post adverts on directories like Google Ads and Bing. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising only charges you when customers click on your ads.

It’s easy to understand how PPC operates: An auction happens every time a term appears in ad space on a search engine results page (SERP).

Then, interested companies place a bid to show up for that term. Since bids are pre-set, the entire procedure is automated. The winning bidder is chosen based on several criteria, including bid amount and ad quality, and their ad is displayed in the top ad area.

The advertiser’s Ad Rank, which is determined by calculating the greatest amount an advertiser is willing to pay per click by Quality Score, which accounts for click-through rate, relevancy, and landing page quality to improve conversion rate, determines the advertiser’s position in the top spot.

Let me show you how it works with the help of an example, 

This is the PPC campaign model, and this is how it works. 

To set up and run a PPC campaign, you can create accounts on websites like Google Ads or Bing, but simply understanding what PPC is and how it functions is only half the battle.

The other half is knowing what you want to accomplish. You can take up PPC services to accomplish a variety of objectives, from generating new leads and sales to enhancing brand recognition and establishing authority on search engines. 

In the end, PPC is all about giving your audience relevant material at the precise time they need it.

Why Is PPC An Effective Short-Term Strategy?

It’s important to keep in mind that with PPC, you’re essentially “renting” visitors to your website for a limited period.

Brands that rely heavily on sponsored search revenue are just one crisis away from having their entire operation fall apart. Your traffic will stop coming the instant you stop paying for search advertisements.

The paid search might increase traffic temporarily, but it can be challenging to sustain if you’re on a tight budget.

Brands may generate the same traffic with organic SEO, as opposed to PPC, and if done well, benefit over time. That’s not to say Google Ads can’t be a useful component of your marketing plan, but placing all your marketing eggs in one basket can backfire.

Observing the benefits of SEO (Search engine optimization) can take months, depending on the level of competition and the speed at which you establish your site’s authority. That’s why PPC is one of my favorite ways to quickly start testing out a digital strategy and sales processes.

When Is PPC Used?

Even if you’re just getting started in marketing, you probably already know that PPC ads are a major source of traffic for websites. 

One of the most important things to understand is that the website or landing page you are sending prospects to determines how successful your campaign will be.

If the page is useless and boring, there is little point in investing time and money in the advertisement.

You can run PPC campaigns on various platforms:

Let’s discuss when and how to use them:

YouTube

Did you know that, after Google, YouTube is the second-most popular search engine? 

Consider this. From lectures to crazy conspiracy theory rabbit holes that you tumble down when you can’t sleep, it’s ideal for a variety of hobbies. Additionally, as Google owns it, videos published here are optimized to show up in search results.

It’s worth thinking about as you can conduct paid  PPC campaigns (pre-roll, etc.) using Google Ads as well.

See the example below:

Search Engines

You’ll see these advertisements at the top of the search results page. They are straightforward text advertisements with obvious labels that resemble search results.

The keywords used to target these adverts (search terms or phrases). Due to its effectiveness, PPC is the most widely used type.

Additionally, the positioning is advantageous as it may move past the top pages that are found organically for that query.

Read More: 11 Best Keyword Research Tools In 2022

Display Ads

Similar to search ads, display ads are visual and have a little more targeting power. As a result, you may construct segments that are extremely focused and display your advertisement in places on the internet that are appropriate. 

Given that you can use both pictures and text, it’s perfect for raising brand awareness.

Social Media Ads

Utilize the extensive user data that social media platforms gather! To run these ads, you only need a business account—not even a social media presence that is incredibly popular or active. 

With the focus being on visuals, there are many different ad types you may run, so you must get that right.

Let me show you an example. I searched for this brand on Instagram, DigitalOcean. It’s an American cloud infrastructure provider. 

Later, I came across the ads for this brand. 

Remarketing

Have you ever looked at a pair of shoes online only to find them stalking you elsewhere? A remarketing campaign does just that. 

If you have already heard about remarketing, then you also must have heard about Facebook remarketing. 

Let me show you the relationship between remarketing and PPC. 

I explored the website of the brand, Markup, and then left the website. Later the brand showed me the Ad on my Facebook account. 

That’s how they use PPC as remarketing. 

When focusing on visitors who have browsed around your website and indicated interest but haven’t taken any further action, PPC advertising can be very efficient. Sequential remarketing is a method of creating a sequence of advertising that will evolve.

Read More: Everything You Need To Know About Facebook Retargeting

Google Shopping

As the name implies, Google will display product links to online shops that are hosting advertisements, like this:

The Benefits Of PPC Ads

PPC is one of the most effective strategies to rapidly produce leads while keeping your costs under control.

Listed below are only a handful of PPC’s primary advantages:

PPC Ads Are Economical

You decide how much you’re willing to spend per click with PPC advertising campaigns (which is, in essence, your bid strategy). You will make a profit because you only pay when users click on your link. 

Also, there are so many factors that you can choose to pay as per your needs and wants. It’s an economical model for all. 

You can choose any of the above models to go with PPC.

PPC Advertising Delivers Fast Results

Gaining organic traffic from search engines can take some time. PPC lets you swiftly take advantage of low-hanging fruit and raises the authority of your website. 

Think of it this way: PPC is like a 500-meter sprint compared to SEO’s marathon.

Combining paid advertising with organic marketing tactics should increase the impact of both tactics and expand the audience for your website.

You May Target Your Ideal Clients

You can bid on terms that your customers are using in PPC campaigns. Additionally, you can narrow down your target market based on demographics, previous behavior, and remarketing (engaging those who might have abandoned a cart).

PPC Can Assist Your Organic Marketing Plan

Your PPC and SEO strategies can complement one another. Use PPC to produce quick wins and complete SEO to support that effort. To create content for your paid advertisements, look for similar terms that you can target.

Steps To Apply PPC Campaign

Paid search marketing is a powerful tool for business expansion, but it’s critical to keep up with the most recent developments.

Consumer behaviors evolve throughout time, and new technologies are constantly being developed. This implies that strategies that were successful for your PPC advertising might not continue to be so in the future. 

See the flow of a PPC campaign. It will help you understand how a PPC campaign goes on. 

Now, let’s discuss each of them.

Set Goals

Every marketing initiative needs objectives, even sponsored search. You must consider how your campaign will turn out and have a way to track your progress toward your objectives.

• What is the most important goal you want to accomplish with your PPC campaign? 
• Do you want to increase your income? 
• Do you wish to raise your brand’s SEO visibility? 
• What key phrases do you want to concentrate your campaign on? 
• Do you need to revamp an existing campaign or launch a brand-new one?

Define Your PPC Objectives

You might be confused now about what you will include in your PPC objectives. Here is the list of ideas that you can add to your PPC objectives. 

i. Increasing Sales And Revenue

The amount of sales that your website generates through PPC is nearly certain to rise if everything is set up correctly.

With that audience, you’ll have a better chance of increasing your sales. Your campaign can target those who have shown an interest in your product or service.

Instead of using generic keywords that won’t generate any clicks at all, you must make sure that your keywords are optimized for the phrases that your target audience uses to search online in order to increase your sales through sponsored search.

Highly specific keywords are more expensive, but they significantly increase your chances of making a sale from a customer who clicked on your link in a search engine result.

ii. Boosting Website Traffic

Focusing on broad-based but pertinent keywords that guarantee clicks can help you successfully increase site traffic. You must ensure that your content and website structure are on point if you want to maximize the ROI from increasing online traffic with PPC.

iii. Taking the lead over the competitors

Without competition, a niche could not exist. PPC enables you to bid on keywords that have already been trademarked by your rivals. As a result, when potential customers look up to your competition, you may convince them that your offer is superior.

Achieving this also denies your rivals’ revenue and gives you a chance to market your goods as superior to those of your rivals.

iv. Boosting Profits

Every marketing campaign should aim to boost profitability. In PPC, increasing earnings should be a long-term objective because nothing can ensure an immediate profit.

You must be patient, test things out, optimize your keywords, have a good website, and ensure that what you are giving makes sense.

v. Brand acknowledgment

PPC advertising enables your brand to publish advertisements on pertinent websites to help you drive traffic and raise brand awareness, just like brands desire to have a commercial for the Super Bowl.

This helps you build your brand while also being advantageous to your traffic. Putting your brand’s logo and products in front of a fresh audience through dynamic adverts helps boost customer confidence in your business.

A more specific list of PPC objectives might look like this:

• A certain number of users must click on an ad and fill out a lead generation form.
• Paid search should bring 200 new leads per month from your website.
• The cost per click (CPC) should not be more than $2.50.
• The time spent on the website by PPC visitors should be greater than the time spent by organic visitors.

Make A Budget

The best way to create a PPC budget is to compare your SEO spending to your PPC spending.

If your campaign has a measurable outcome, the question is how much you want to spend per lead to achieve that goal. That is your acquisition cost (CPA).

So, if a lead costs you $25 on average to convert and close, and that close nets you $20,000, you can see how effective PPC can be.

Having said that, you may have to go through 300 leads before making that one sale.

The total cost is $7,500. Less than the final sale, but still significant.

When deciding on a PPC budget or ad spend, more “generic” and popular keyword terms will cost you more. Thorough keyword research focusing on longer-tail terms (three or four-word phrases) can save you money because they often have lower search volume and are therefore less expensive to bid on. Make a list of relevant keyword terms that are practical to pursue.

Trainers, for example, would be extremely competitive and have a very high CPC.

However, most advertisers, particularly in B2B, are willing to pay more per click because the product will pay for itself and then some. Furthermore, the margins are usually favorable.

When it comes to your PPC strategy, a good bid strategy combined with an idea of overall ad spend (how much you want to spend for your clicks) will help to maximize return on investment (ROI).

Let me show you how you can create a PPC budget for your business:

Choose Your Campaign Type

There are numerous ways to advertise your content to your target audience, and knowing which one(s) works best for you will help you expand your reach.

You could even use a combination of them.

i. Search Network

The most common type of PPC ad is a search network. They are referring to the text ads that appear on SERPs. Consider the following example:

ii. Display Network

The Google Display Network (GDN) allows you to place image-based ads on third-party networks.

iii. Product Listing Ads (Shopping)

These ads work best for eCommerce websites. Your ad will appear on a carousel on a search page for your targeted keywords, complete with an image, price, and short product description.

iv. Remarketing/Retargeting

You can connect with people who previously interacted with your website, whether it was making an attempt (or forgetting) to make a purchase, downloading a guide, or reading one of your blogs, by using remarketing/retargeting.

Remarketing/retargeting works by displaying advertisements to these individuals, encouraging them to continue engaging or picking up where they left off.

For example, you could begin looking for a new pillow, decide on the best pillow, but then forget to complete your purchase or change your mind. Ads like the one below will begin to appear on associated GDN websites within minutes.

Keyword Research – Choose Your Words Carefully

Keyword research is the next step in your PPC advertising strategy. Your campaigns are essentially divided into ad groups, and it is these groups that define the structure of your campaign.

Each ad group you create must have a set of keywords assigned to it; this is how Google (and other search engines) know when and where to display your ad.

Relevant keywords are essential (as is your landing page), so I recommend choosing one to five keywords per ad group. Your terms should be specific and, ideally, longer than one or two words (again, highly competitive terms will cost you more).

Consider creating separate groups for keywords that fall outside of ad groups (if practical).

You should also spend some time determining negative keywords, or keywords for which you do not want to be found, and creating keyword lists for the future.

Finally, you are not limited to the keywords you begin with. Monitoring the performance of your keywords and ad groups is the best thing you can do. You may notice that your ads receive a lot of clicks but very few conversions.

This could imply that your landing page’s content isn’t as relevant or valuable as it could be. Similarly, you may be getting consistent conversions but very few clicks; this could indicate that you’re targeting keywords that aren’t frequently searched.

Consider broadening your keyword research and optimizing your strategy with tools like Similarweb. PPC is an iterative process, and you should constantly refine and expand your campaigns to reach your target audiences.

Defining Your Campaign Account Structure

Defining your campaign’s account structure is an important part of your PPC campaign strategy. To clearly define your campaigns, go through the terms you identified from your keyword research (as previously mentioned) and consider the end action you want users to take when they arrive on your site using those terms.

Most accounts will have a few broad campaigns and then ad groups within those campaigns; for example, a “Lead Generation” campaign may include ad groups for specific products/solutions.

Then, within each ad group, there are keywords related to the product/solution being advertised. This allows you to segment your targeted terms and gain a clear picture of how your campaigns and overall account structure are performing.

Tracking Your Campaigns

Google Analytics is your best friend if you use Google Ads. It’s completely free to use, so there’s no reason not to put it on your website. You can get a detailed view of how your website is performing, how users interact with your pages, what content is appealing to your visitors, and how your keywords are performing by using Google Analytics.

But why not take things a step further?

Similarweb allows you to significantly scale your PPC strategy by leveraging media buying and ad creative research tools to discover the most effective ad formats and content.

You can also learn how your campaigns and those of your competitors are performing so that you can respond appropriately.

Finally, you can use our keyword research and analysis tools (which include over 1 billion keywords) to develop solid strategies based on reliable, real-world data. There will be no more missing the mark.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg; Similarweb can help you with everything from paid traffic analysis and display trends to paid media and ROI optimization.

How To Use PPC Campaigns To Prospect Your SEO Strategy

Once you’ve optimized your Google Ads campaigns and begun purchasing clicks, you’ll start collecting tonnes of data, not only about whether your PPC ad campaign structure is effective but also whether you can redeploy it in SEO.

PPC campaigns can help digital marketers test three things at the same time

1) Keyword Targeting 

2) Traffic Quality 

3) The Conversion Funnel On Their Website

Use PPC To Identify High-Value Keywords

One of the most beneficial aspects of a PPC campaign is that it allows digital marketers to test out specific keywords before developing an SEO strategy around ranking organically for them.

The Search Terms Report is the best place to go to get information about your keyword targeting.

Even if you use “Exact Match,” keep in mind that your Google Ads are not only triggered for the search phrases or words that you add to your campaign.

So, review your search terms report to see which phrases your ads are being triggered for and make use of that information.

There will almost certainly be many search terms generating clicks that were not previously on your radar. This report will also provide you with a more comprehensive understanding of the long-tail keyword variants that present SEO opportunities, as these keywords are often less competitive to rank for (but still have high search intent).

You can then optimize new landing pages or blog posts for those long-tail phrases.

The search terms that generate high-quality clicks indicate that those keywords are likely worth targeting in SEO. If you find search terms in this report that aren’t relevant to your products or services but your ads are still appearing, your keyword targeting is probably off.

There are numerous reasons for this, but the most common is that your keywords are either too broad or multi-intent, bringing traffic that is not necessarily in the sales funnel.

To correct this, add less relevant keywords to a negative keyword list.

The cost-per-conversion of your Google Ads can also help you understand the potential long-term economic value of ranking organically for certain keywords.

If it costs hundreds to thousands of dollars to generate clicks in a PPC campaign, but you can get that same traffic in perpetuity through organic rankings, you can make significant progress toward improving the overall ROI of your marketing spend.

SEO has a wonderful way of gradually lowering the cost-per-acquisition. Once you know which search phrases are likely to generate clicks and customers, you can optimize your website to rank for those same keywords and receive the same traffic (but this time, for free.)

Test If Your Landing Pages Are Well-Designed To Convert

PPC campaigns also allow you to test the conversion funnel on your website. With Google Ads conversion tracking, you can determine whether your landing pages are performing well and directing users to the desired conversion action.

To set up conversion tracking, you must first decide which conversion actions to track.

Ecommerce businesses will most likely want to track when a user adds items to their shopping cart. Track actions like lead form submissions, downloads, or demo bookings for B2B or B2C brands (where the next step in the sales funnel isn’t always a purchase).

These design elements frequently clash with what it takes for a landing page to rank organically (e.g. In-depth content, breadcrumbs, external links, information architecture, rich media, etc.)

Use your PPC campaigns to experiment with various landing page design elements or conversion-optimized practices to see what works best.

The suggestions are:

• The number and placement of CTAs; Design elements such as fonts, colors, button size, and so on;
• Sticky bars, for example, are conversion-optimized features.
• The navigation menu has been removed.

You can also test whether your conversion journey will translate for users who arrive at your website organically by sending PPC clicks to landing pages that already have strong keyword rankings or that you know have ranking potential.

Conclusion

When it comes to PPC campaign strategy, there is a lot to cover, which is why many businesses use PPC management tools to speed up the process. These solutions can help you do more with your advertising campaigns by automatically adjusting bids and providing insight into competitor performance.

Incrementors digital marketing agency gives you the data you need to conduct the research you need to create the most effective PPC campaigns, from competitor analysis and keyword research to ad research and media buying.

Our platform provides new insights based on real data, allowing you to optimize your PPC campaign strategy to meet your audiences’ expectations.