Paid Search (PPC) can be an effective tool for businesses to advertise on the Internet. The advantages to this marketing technique are many: precise targeting options, total control over spending and budgeting, and visible ad placements on highly-trafficked networks are just some of the perks of utilizing PPC. However, often times advertisers wind up in situations where they are spending far more money on their advertising efforts than what they are gaining in the form of their desired conversion goals.
While negative-ROI campaigns can certainly happen with any advertising medium, the flexibility and control available in paid search should be enough to allow for positive results every time; provided, that is, you know how to effectively manage your campaign. Included in this article are five general tips to help you maximize your ROI when using paid search advertising to market your product or service.
Find the optimal position
#1 position on Google, or any of the major search networks, is great for visibility. It can often kill your conversion metrics, though. If you are managing a direct response campaign, focus on the position that brings you the greatest amount of traffic for the lowest cost. While this may turn out to be position #1 for some keywords, chances are great that you will see more efficient cost per lead numbers on lower positions.
Refine your keyword list
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have small keyword lists for your campaign; some of the most effective PPC campaigns utilize vast amounts of keywords to increase visibility. However, stay away from the more generic one-word keywords as much as possible. Utilize long-tail keyword phrases consisting of 3-4 targeted words whenever applicable, and avoid using keyword phrases containing words such as compare, rates/prices, reviews, etc, unless those specifically apply to your conversion goals.
Specify your target audience
If you run a business that doesn’t ship products to Alaska, advertising in Anchorage won’t yield positive results. Take advantage of geographic targeting options on search network advertising, and set your ideal demographic within the content networks to your specific target audience.
Diversify
One of the easiest way to set yourself up for negative ROI results from the very beginning is by budgeting too highly to one particular traffic source, while ignoring others. While Google will bring you in the most traffic of the major search engines, that could also mean paying more for the traffic while not seeing the best results. Test each of the major search engines as your budget allows, and you may end up finding that Bing or Yahoo, or even a Tier 2 search engine, are better sources of converting traffic.
Always be Testing
This is a standard rule of thumb in advertising in general, and can be rather simple to conduct within your paid search campaigns. Try out different ad copy, landing pages, keyword match types (i.e. broad versus phrase match), and as mentioned, ad networks to better determine your potential paid search metrics.
Managing paid search to an optimal return on investment can often be challenging considering the various options that are out there. Utilizing these techniques can help ensure effective, ROI positive results within your PPC campaigns.