How to Create a Winning PPC Strategy for 2018
Pay per Click is a type of advertising, which if used correctly, can lead to great results. However, if you want PPC to succeed, you will need to come up with a great strategy. The strategy you choose needs to consider every aspect of your advertising campaign. If you fail to do this, you could end up losing quite a lot of money. That is why we at RunRex have decided to show you a simple process of creating a great strategy.
Why do you need a strategy?
Having a strategy is important if you want your PPC campaign to succeed. Just randomly picking keywords and using them for the period of the campaign is never a great idea. For one, you may never get to learn if these keywords will perform well. There could be many untapped keywords, but if you do not plan, you will never monetize.
- Look at the competition
The first step in your strategy is to check out what the competition is doing. To do this, you will need to learn which keywords they are using. You simply enter a related keyword for the site you run, and if there are any ads, they will appear at the top of search results.
Try to search for the most popular organic keywords and see if any competitor is using them for ads. If there are any ads, ensure you note their headline and description. The aim here is to piggyback on the research done by your competition. If they have spent months doing research and decide that a certain keyword is best, that is information you can use. From there, you can simply outbid them and steal business from them.
- Identify new keywords
Now that you understand what the competition has been doing, it is time to find some possibly untapped keywords. To do this, you will need to use various tools to conduct keyword research. One of the tools you can use is Google Keyword Planner.
When you use the tool, you will find hundreds of keywords and various facts around them such as monthly search volume and the level of competition. Now you can arrange the keywords by their suggested bid, depending on the budget you have. Now simply identify a few that you feel are most relevant to your site and with good monthly volumes.
After you pick the keywords you like, you will go to a new screen where you can change the estimated bid. The tool will then how many clicks and impressions you can expect to get depending on the bid you make. You can do this a few more times to see which one offers you the most value for money.
You may also choose to use the UberSuggests tool for your keyword research. Simply enter the keyword you have in mind, and it will come with hundreds of other related keywords. The good thing about these tools is that they are all free.
- Come up with an ad draft
The PPC adverts need to grab the attention of your potential clients. Ensure that you include all the relevant keywords and a call to action that is likely to boost the click-through rate. If you have a great click-through rate, it will affect your Google quality score, which will affect how you pay per click.
Write several ads as you will need to do a lot of testing to find out which one will perform the best. If you only create one ad, you will not have a way of knowing whether it is the best or the worst. If you are struggling to come up with creative words, research on your competitors will come in handy.
You can also just Google the keywords you choose and see the top PPC ad. Look at how it is structured and the wording used. You can then use it as a template to create a winning ad of your own.
- Optimize your ads
The final step in your PPC strategy is to optimize your ads. To do this, simply visit the Google PPC management dashboard. Here you will find various metrics such as the click-through rate, overall clicks, and impressions.
With this data, you can begin cutting out the bad ads and concentrating on the performing ads. This way, you do not end up spending too much money on ads that will never perform. This process can be quite tricky.
You cannot simply remove underperforming keywords and leave it at that. Sometimes, an underperforming keyword can begin to perform well in future. Thus, a keyword you removed in the past you might have to add it again in future. A delicate process requires you to do a lot of research to find keywords that win.
With this simple strategy, you should begin to see you return on investment from your PPC campaign improving.