Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising is the most common form of advertising. PPC has proved it is highly effective when it comes to driving immediate and qualified traffic that is on the verge of converting.
Pay per click has become an innovative method to increase traffic, at the same time, it also requires hard work, strategic thinking, proper planning, and constant monitoring.
While there will be times that no matter the effort level put in campaigns will not work according to plants. What makes it worse is that sometimes you will not even understand the reasons that are causing the PPC campaign to underperform.
If you are currently going through the situation of underperforming PPC campaigns you will want to continue to read. So pull up a chair, get out your notepad and start reassessing your strategies from the tips we are giving you.
1. Optimize Your Keyword Quality Score
Google’s entire business model relies on providing searchers with relevant results. This goes for organic results as well as Google Ads, formally Google Adwords. In order to do this Google will assign your targeted keywords a Quality Score (QS). Combining QS and CPC (cost per click) bid will determine your “Ad Rank”
To do this, Google assigns your target keywords a Quality Score (QS). This QS, along with your CPC (cost per click) bid, is what then determines your “Ad Rank.”
The several factors that determine your QS are:
- Ad Relevance (How relevant the keyword is to the ad copy you serve).
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- Use proper match of keywords
- Employ negative keywords
- Ensure the relevance between the keywords and the ads
- Use sitelink extensions
- Make full use of Ad Extensions
2. Landing Page Experience.
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- Optimize the loading time of your page
- Make your landing page easy to navigate
- Create an attention-grabbing headline and remove distractions
- Use attractive images and videos
- Make your landing page responsive and device compatible
3. Expected CTR (click-through rate).
Most PPC experts will consider CTR to be the most important factor when determining QS. So it should be obvious to start looking and optimizing your CTR.
Analyze the keyword relevancy of your campaigns. You should be asking yourself “Is my ad copy aligned with the search intent of the keyword?”
By having an optimized CTR, and therefore quality score, you will generate more qualified traffic and high-quality traffic delivers better conversion rates. If your keywords, ads, and landing pages are highly relevant then it will give a better search experience to the user.
Once you’ve optimized CTR, your landing pages should be the next target. Dynamic text replacement (DTR) can provide some quick wins. This “swaps” specific copy in your landing page based on the keyword the user searched to find you. DTR can improve quality scores and therefore contribute to a higher CVR.
Do Not Forget Negative Keywords
Negative keywords have a vital role in avoiding budget leakage from your PPC campaign. Whenever a PPC Campaign underperforms, the negative keywords will come to its rescue.
They are those keywords that will prevent your ads from being triggered by irrelevant search queries. This can affect your CTR drastically.
An example is the term “melon”. For a gardening company, it would make sense to use this as a keyword, however, this is also a term used in Minecraft. Because of people searching for melons but referring to Minecraft the gardening company should place the keyword “melon” as a negative keyword.
If your ads are getting high impressions but your CTR is comparatively low, this calls for the usage of negative keywords. By ensuring that your ads are not triggered by any sort of irrelevant search queries. The use of negative keywords will drive targeted and qualified traffic to your site which can result in increased conversions.
They also let you improve your Quality Score and reduce the Cost Per Click, making a win-win situation.
Relevance Between Ads and Search Terms
Looking at your Ad Groups, you might notice that there are certain Ad Groups that are performing well while the others are underperforming.
If this is the case, then it would be smart to focus on the underperforming Ad Groups.
The first step is to evaluate the relevance between your ads and the search terms used in the underperforming Ad Groups.
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- Select the Ad Group, check the keywords
- Select Details> Search Terms>All
You will then be able to see the search terms that have initiated the clicks on your ads.
If there is a lack of relevance between your ads and search terms, this could be a major problem as your ads are showing for irrelevant search queries which are not only lowering your CTR but is also wasting your Ad budget.
To fix this problem, you need to ensure to make your ads more relevant to the keywords and the search terms. Taking this step will not only improve the relevance but will also improve the Quality Score as well as increase the conversion rate.
Moreover, if a certain search term is irrelevant, add it to your negative list to ensure that your ad is not triggered by that irrelevant search term. It is better to be safe than to waste money.
Competitive Analysis
Competitor Analysis is the process of identifying your competitors and assessing their strategies, strengths and weaknesses. This is an essential part of the PPC Campaign strategy. A Competitors Analysis provides a wealth of information about your competitors, that will help you create campaigns that are competitive.
To conduct a competitor analysis you should know about:
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- Your Competitors
- The products/services that they sell
- Their strategies
- Their strengths and weaknesses
You can collect all the relevant information about your competitors and then create your strategies accordingly.
You can conduct the competitor’s analysis manually or use a tool. Using PPC tools provides more accurate data than using manual data and it saves time.
There is a smorgasbord of PPC tools available for competitor analysis, which allows you to be able to decide the right one for you and your needs. Some examples of the tools are SEMrush, KeywordSpy, SpyFu, Adbeat, WhatRunsWhere, The Search Monitor, Adgooroo, and many more.
Think About Remarketing
Remarketing is a feature that in PPC that lets you show your ads to previous visitors to the site.
The remarketing campaigns are a great way to increase the overall conversions for your campaigns. These campaigns only target users who had previously shown interest in products or services you have to offer. Remarketing helps you to connect with your past visitors and persuade them to come back to your website to complete the conversion goal.
Remarketing also lets you create highly targeted ads because now you know that you have to only target the people who have visited your website and what were they looking for. Because of their familiarity with your brand converting them is easier.
You can even segment your audience through remarketing and create different ads on the basis of the pages that your visitors have visited. This is a much more targeted remarketing campaign that can increase your conversion.
As your conversion rate goes up, your ROI gets increased automatically.
Improve The Landing Page Experience
According to Unbounce, “A Landing Page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at or “land” on.”
more directly, a landing page is a certain web page that is designed while keeping a single objective in mind.
The landing page is the first step toward the conversion funnel. It is responsible for converting your website visitors into potential conversions.
There are certain things that you should keep in mind if you are looking to improve the user experience of your landing page.
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- Create attractive headlines that grab the attention of the user. The headline only has a few seconds to grab the attention of the user.
- Make sure that your headline is straightforward enough to catch the attention of the users instantly. Make your headline short, clear, and concise.
- Remove all the distractions from the landing page. You don’t want to divert the users from taking the desired conversion goal.
- To minimize the distractions either shrink or remove the irrelevant menu and eliminate the sidebars.
- Take off the irrelevant images as well as videos.
- Include a compelling Call-to-Action. It is the most important element when you are looking forward to increasing your conversion rate.
- Ensure that the CTA is the most prominent feature. Make it easy for the visitors to click on it.
- Choose images and videos that are relevant to your product and service and make sure that they are high-quality.
- You should optimize your landing page for mobile users as well.
- Reduce the loading time of your landing pages.
If users find that a certain website is taking too long to open, they will simply move on to some other website. Even a delay of one second can damper the performance of your landing page conversions. To avoid this, you should reduce the loading time of your website.
Utilize Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions are a type of ad format that shows or reveals extra information about your business, product, or service.
Using Ad Extensions can increase your CTR significantly. The Ad Extensions not only increase the visibility of your ads but let your ads receive more qualified clicks. They can highlight the benefits, features, and details of your products.
There are two types of Ad Extensions. One is Manual Ad Extension while the other is Automatic Ad Extension.
Manual Ad Extension
Manual Ad Extensions are customizable add ons to your Ads that give extra information about your product or service. They are of the following types:
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- Sitelink Extensions: The most common type of extensions that are used. They are located under your headline and description.
- Location Extensions: This type of extension allows you to add your business address to your ads. This makes it easier for customers to reach out to you and who are local.
- Call Extensions: You can display the phone number of your business with Call Extensions. The call extensions make it easy for potential customers to get in touch with you via the phone.
- App Extensions: This extension allows the users to download your app by directly giving the download link.
- Review Extensions: These extensions allow the reviews of the third party on your ads. Sharing positive reviews from a respectable third party can enhance the CTR of your ads.
- Callout Extensions: These extensions let you add more text to your ads like short clips of text that make you stand out in a crowd.
Automatic Ad Extension
The automatic ad extensions are just that. They automatically pulled out from the different sources to create an ad extension for you. They are of the following types:
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- Customer Rating Extensions: They are generated from certified Google sources and consumer surveys.
- Seller Rating Extensions: This adds to your store’s rating.
- Previous Visits Extensions: It provides a short footnote telling the user if they have recently visited the website.
- Dynamic Sitelink Extensions: A link to a popular offering or piece of content on your website.
- Dynamic Structured Extensions: This Shows additional information about various categories of your website.
There is always room for improvement, especially with underperforming PPC campaigns. It’s not beneficial to abandon or pause or delete a PPC campaign just because of its low performance. Blue Water Marketing can help you understand underperforming keywords and how to better optimize them. How to create dynamic landing pages and utilize Ad Extensions to convert more users.
You should be continually checking all your ads to make sure they are optimized to deliver the best results. Need help in optimizing your PPC campaigns? Give us a call today!
