Five Tips for Efficient PPC Management

PPC, or pay per click advertising, is a mainstay of effective internet advertising that has benefits for the advertiser and the advertisement host alike. Under PPC, advertisers only pay for each click an ad receives. While sites hosting the ads receive payment based on the frequency of clicks. This process helps hosts gain revenue that is tied directly into audience response to the ad while helping advertisers limit ad expenditures to only those ads that get results.

However, to make the most of your PPC advertising, you need to keep a few simple PPC management rules in mind:

PPC BUDGET

Not all search engines were created equally and should not be budgeted equally. An ad hosted on Yahoo will almost certainly not get the same number of clicks – or eyes – as the same ad on Google. Why is this important? When allocating funding for your ad program, you need to take this into account when determining which service will give you the greatest return on your advertising dollar. For instance, if you are running an ad on Yahoo and Google, don’t split your budget 50-50 between the sites. Your budget should reflect a realistic idea of how much cost each site will incur for the campaign. Realistically a 30-70 split should be more appropriate but will vary based on the quality or appeal of the actual ad and how efficient your search engine optimization (SEO) has been set up.

Allocate budget based on hard numbers: A corollary to the point above is to let actual conversion numbers guide your PPC advertising budget. Allow enough budget flexibility that if you see that one campaign is working better than another that you can direct more resources to that ad or ad campaign. However, all budget decisions made after a campaign is launched should be based on hard market analysis, not on gut feeling or personal preference of one site over another.

 

PPC CHALLENGES

Be realistic about the challenges facing PPC advertising: Your PPC program is only as good as the management of your PPC program. There are some pitfalls that good PPC management can mitigate: rising cost of PPC due to increased competition and cost per click; managing hundreds if not thousands of keywords; the challenges of creating PPC advertisements that work in mobile browsers; and the ongoing battle with ad-blocking software. A professional, full-service digital marketing agency can help you overcome these hurdles.

PPC ANALYTICS

Campaign Analytics is your friend: Many services such as Google AdWords can deliver very precise statistics regarding the efficiency of your campaign. Need to know which keywords are the most efficient? What time, the day of the week, or day of the month does your ad drive the most clicks? These services can extract this data for you so that you can fine-tune your ad campaign to deliver the most clicks at best time for your business – and your budget.

PPC KEYWORDS

Don’t be afraid to narrow your niche to drive the right customers to your site: Few things irritate potential customers – and cost you lost PPC dollars – quite like a misleading ad word or SEO term that drives customers to an advertiser that is not what they seem. For instance, if your specialty is electric guitars, resist the urge to push just ‘guitars’ as a keyword. Customers looking for acoustic guitars will quickly flee your site, while you will be left holding the bag for wasted ad clicks. Ineffective PPC is a waste of the customers’ time and your resources.

At HARNESS, we offer a full range of digital marketing services designed to drive your business to the next level.

Contact us today to put our professional, full-service digital marketing experts to work for you to create the captivating content that you need to engage your customers.