PPC management is a major key to driving traffic for your small business. Small business owners are always on the lookout for tactics and strategies they can use to boost their sales. One such strategy includes investing in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, but in order for your investment to be worth it, you’ll need to understand PPC management.

How PPC Works

The concept of PPC is extremely simple. It includes 3 steps:

It’s a pretty simple and straightforward concept. The hardest part is actually getting your ad seen, and if your ad isn’t being seen, it isn’t being clicked on. Knowing how to manage your PPC ads will ensure you’re getting the most out of them. To help you, we’ve created a list of 7 PPC management tips you can implement to optimize your advertising efforts.

PPC Management

The Right Platform

In order to properly manage a great PPC ad campaign, you need to use a platform that’s popular among your target audience and has the ability to drive targeted traffic. This will ensure that only the most relevant prospects are seeing and clicking on your ad. 

The best place to start is with Google Ads. User intent is different on search engines than social sites – people are there to look for resources and take action. Google is the largest search engine and therefore the most effective for reaching a precise, relevant audience. Unfortunately, this also means you’ll pay more for each click than you would with other platforms.

Google Ads is an auction-based system where advertisers bid on keywords to win and secure ad space. They also offer analytic trackers and other tools to help you manage and analyze the results of your campaigns, but we’ll talk more about that later.

Facebook and Google Ads

For more effective advertising results, you’ll have to go beyond running a simple ad campaign on Google that attempts to turn complete strangers into paying customers on the first try. To bring your advertising to the next level, use Google Ads along with Facebook as your two main PPC platforms. Facebook alone has 1.66 billion people who are considered daily active users. When used properly, the combination of these two powerhouse PPC platforms will undoubtedly increase conversion rate.

Here’s how it works:

Note that your Facebook ads should be focused on brand awareness, not necessarily sales. Ad campaigns are much more effective when the audience is already familiar with the brand and product. You can slowly bring your audience through your sales funnel by using different types of advertisements on the appropriate platforms. 

PPC Management for Small Business: Research is Key

Preliminary research plays an essential role when it comes to advertising. What keywords should you choose? How should you target your ideal audience? Here are some tools that will help answer these questions for you.

SEMrush

SEMrush provides all-in-one marketing toolkits. They have a PPC Keyword Tool that offers an easy way to plan and set up an optimized Google Ads campaign. They also have a free version for businesses who want to try it out before making a full commitment.

SpyFu

Another great PPC software, SpyFu allows you to search for any competitor and download their keywords.

Moz and SimilarWeb

 

 

 

 

 

 

You also have Moz and SimilarWeb that can track your PPC performance and analyze competitor keywords. 

PPC advertising has helped many businesses grow and gain more clients. A well-planned PPC strategy can make all the difference in the success of your business. That’s why it’s important for you to construct a concrete PPC plan before trying anything out. Playing it by ear will only do the opposite, and end up costing you money. Be sure to check out the resources above before you get started on your PPC strategy.

Start a Negative Keywords List

Before starting your PPC ad campaign, try making a negative keyword list. Negative keywords are those that will prevent your ad from being triggered. Your ads won’t be shown to anyone who is searching for that particular phrase.

Creating a negative keyword list can help you fine tune your audience. You’ll be able to create ads without having to worry about targeting the wrong audience. Especially if you’re a business that uses keywords with multiple potential meanings.

Negative keywords will filter your leads, leaving you with quality leads that are more likely to convert into actual customers. It also increases the relevance of the ad for those who are doing the search, and helps to sort out users looking for services or products unrelated to your business. When you’re paying for every click, the last thing you want is a bunch of ad clicks from individuals who aren’t even interested in your specific service or product.

PPC Management for Small Business: Grow Your Keywords List and Always Be Testing

No keywords list should be fixed when it comes to ad campaigns. Never be afraid to add new keywords to the list if your campaign isn’t performing how it should. Small tweaks here and there can make a huge difference in conversion – the only way to know what works is to constantly test.

If you’re using Google Ads, you can expand your keywords list by using the search query report. It will show you exactly what people are searching for when they interact with your ads. This information will increase your insight into the needs and interests of your audience.

If you see any keywords in those searches that you can target, then it’s time to add them to the list!

Relevant Keywords

When expanding your keywords list, be sure to only choose words that are relevant to your business and ad campaign. Here are a few other best practices when it comes to keywords:

• The ads should have the new keyword included in them.
• Each new keyword set should have its own ad campaign group.
• Increase your budget when you add new keywords.

Split Testing or A/B Testing

Split testing, or A/B testing, lets you test different designs and versions of your ads, so you can see what works best and improve your future campaigns. You can do this for your ads or your landing pages.

Run two ads that are just slightly different – keep the design the same but the keywords different, or change the headline but not the audience. Watch which one performs better, then take the best performing one and refine. Repeat!

It’s extremely important to make note of the elements that contribute to the success or failure of your ad campaigns. Continuing to spend money blindly on ads without making informed decisions based on previous experience is a dangerous game.

Each ad campaign should include one or more of these types of experiments. This will help you adjust and refine your campaign using the best design and copy. Testing your ads will always help you gain insight and learn something new. No matter what the outcome is, knowledge will be your ROI.

PPC Management for Small Business: Keep To Your Budget

Another PPC management tip is to create a campaign budget. It’s important that you know when to stop and how to control your campaign, no matter how successful it is. It can be really tempting to extend a successful campaign, but trust me, it can be even more effective once you end it.

When you’ve hit your spending limit, it’s time to stop and evaluate the campaign. Take a deep look at it and analyze which strategies worked and which didn’t. Use whatever information you gained from your evaluation in your next campaign. Eliminate the strategies that didn’t work, and implement the ones that did.

Having a spending limit will prevent you from overspending on one single campaign. It’s better to set a budget for multiple ad campaigns than it is to let one PPC campaign go on for so long that it begins to flop. Continually adjusting is the best way to manage your ad campaigns. Check out this blog for more information on how to promote your business on an affordable budget.

PPC Management for Small Business: Manage Your Bidding

As we’ve mentioned above, sticking to your budget is a big deal in the world of PPC management. That being said, you may need to invest a bit extra in a bid management system. They have countless benefits, such as simplifying and streamlining your bidding process.

The more intricate and complex your ad campaigns are, the more likely it is that you’ll need a bid management system. Having a strong bid is vital for campaigns with low margins because those slim margins could easily get wiped out with a bad bid.

The decision is up to you. You know your business and what it requires, you know your budget and resources, so you decide if it’s worth the cost. If you’d like to discuss how to do this, feel free to reach out – we’d love to chat with you!

Track Your Results

You must never skip this step, because it’s extremely important to know how your PPC ads are performing. Fortunately, there’s a ton of tracking and analytic software out there to help you. Plus, you can always use Google Ads or Google Analytics to get an in-depth examination of your outcomes.

However, it’s important to wait until the campaign is actually finished before checking your campaign outcome data. Doing it while the campaign is still in progress won’t provide you with accurate results.

Once your ad campaign is done, view the analytics, then draw your conclusions. Let things play out – some ad campaigns take more time to bloom than others.

To Conclude…

There is no exact formula for digital marketing success, but having PPC management tips in your back pocket will definitely give you an advantage!

If you feel like you need assistance in managing and improving your PPC ad campaigns, or if you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We’d love to help!