When you’re building your digital marketing strategy, you’ll come across a lot of options for PPC campaigns. A pay-per-click (or PPC campaign) offers unique opportunities to expand your customer base at an accelerated speed and connect with specific users looking for businesses like yours. It’s no wonder this is one of the most popular (and effective ways) to reach your target audience and expand your business.
There are pros and cons to PPC campaigns (we cover them here) but for many businesses, they’re a great way to get traffic, sales, and boost brand awareness.
So, you’re convinced it’s time to set up your first campaign, but you’re not entirely sure where to start.
You hear words like paid search, call to action, ad groups, Google AdWords, keyword research, and many more. But they might as well be in a different language because you have no idea what they mean.
Don’t worry! Help is here. We’ve compiled everything you need to know about how to successfully launch a PPC campaign for the first time.
To start, let’s define some of the words (and more) that we just mentioned so you know exactly what we’re talking about.
Common PPC campaign terminology
Ad groups
We went straight to the source for this definition. Here’s what Google has to say about ad groups:
An ad group contains one or more ads that share similar targets.
- Each of your campaigns is made up of one or more ad groups.
- Use ad groups to organize your ads by a common theme. For example, try separating ad groups into the different product or service types you offer.
Bid strategy
In online advertising, bid strategy refers to the process of deciding how much to pay for each click on an ad. There are a number of factors to consider when setting a bid, including the expected return on investment and the competitive landscape. Google Ads offers a number of different bid strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the “target CPA” strategy minimizes costs while maximizing conversions, while the “maximize clicks” strategy focuses on generating as much traffic as possible. Choosing the right bid strategy depends on a number of factors, including the goals of the campaign and the budget. With careful planning and execution, bid strategy can be a powerful tool for achieving success in online advertising.
Call to action
When you’re creating ad copy (the words you use in an ad) you’ll want to include a call to action or CTA. This is what gets the viewer to move down the next stage of the funnel.
A call to action could be something like “click here,” or “buy now.” CTAs need to be compelling in order to be effective. We’ve shared some tips for writing compelling CTAs in this post.
Keyword research
Keyword research is an incredibly important part of how to successfully launch a PPC campaign for the first time. This research tells you the words people are actually typing in to search for products or services.
Maybe your business sells granola. But with keyword research, you’ve discovered that most of your traffic comes from people searching “healthy snacks.” Once you know the keywords that are actually bringing you traffic and business, you can use them for more effective and successful PPC campaigns.
By the way, we talk more about header tags & keywords in this post. Don’t miss it!
Negative keywords
Let’s go back to Google again to define negative keywords:
Negative keywords let you exclude search terms from your campaigns and help you focus on only the keywords that matter to your customers. Better targeting can put your ad in front of interested users and increase your return on investment (ROI).
Negative keywords won’t match to close variants or other expansions. For example, if you exclude the negative broad match keyword flowers, ads won’t be eligible to serve when a user searches for red flowers but can serve if a user searches for red flower.
Search volume
Search volume is another SEO metric that’s incredibly important to the success of your marketing campaigns. It refers to the number of searches anticipated for a keyword within a certain period. It’s also important for keyword research and analysis to assess the potential search engine traffic for a given keyword.
Launching your campaign
At Blue Water Marketing, PPC campaigns are something we deal with on a daily basis. We know them inside out and we know what makes them successful.
So, want to know how to successfully launch a PPC campaign for the first time?
Make sure your strategy includes:
- Keyword and trend research
- Effective ad copy
- Ongoing testing, analyzing, and reporting
When you entrust your pay-per-click campaigns to us, here’s how we use each of these components to ensure your campaign is a success.
Keyword and trend research
We make sure you only spend money on the most cost-effective keywords. We research thousands of keywords and measure search traffic, competition, and costs associated to select the best keywords for your advertising campaign.
Then, we’ll report back to you with our findings for your approval before launching. Our main goal is that you fully understand the benefits of using various keywords that you might not have thought of.
We also want you to understand the work that goes into a successful campaign. Remember, Google PPC is not a ‘cookie-cutter’ marketing campaign, research must be completed to ensure a successful campaign.
Effective ad copy
We need to ensure each ad group is specific to the keywords that we’ve identified as opportunities for your business.
Google wants a specific ad copy that incorporates the various keywords and categories that relate to your business. With that in mind, we write copy that’s highly relevant to the search for your new customer. This ensures users find what they are looking for, and Google is increasing our Quality-Score which leads to a less expensive cost-per-click than your competitors.
Ongoing testing, analyzing, and reporting
Blue Water Marketing uses ongoing testing to analyze and adjust your campaign accordingly. This includes detailed campaign reporting on a bi-monthly, monthly, and quarterly basis. You’ll get custom reports tailored to the KPIs that we’ve identified during the onboarding phase for new clients.
In addition to these three components of successful PPC campaigns, we utilize several tools depending on your specific strategy, including:
- Google Ads
- Display ads
- Search ads
- Shopping ads
- Facebook ads
- Retargeting ads
Increase leads with PPC campaigns
With smart strategies in place and the right help on your side, you can make sure your first paid search campaign is a success! Get in touch with Blue Water Marketing today to find out how we can work together and get you the results you need.
