Bidding on PPC keywords is a crucial part of any digital marketing campaign. It determines how much you pay for each click, how often your ads show up, and how relevant they are to your target audience. But how do you choose the right keywords and bid strategies to optimize your ROI? Here are some best practices to follow.
Before you start bidding on PPC keywords, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your campaign. Do you want to increase traffic, conversions, leads, sales, or brand awareness? Depending on your goals, you may have different metrics to measure your success, such as click-through rate, cost per conversion, return on ad spend, or impression share. Knowing your goals will help you align your keywords, ads, and landing pages with your desired outcomes.
Once you have your goals in mind, you need to find the keywords that match your audience's intent and your offer. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Moz to discover relevant keywords, their search volume, competition, and cost. You should also analyze your competitors' keywords and ads to identify gaps and opportunities. You want to choose keywords that are relevant, specific, and have a high commercial intent. Avoid keywords that are too broad, vague, or irrelevant to your offer.
Monitor and Optimize: Regularly monitor your PPC campaign performance and make data-driven optimization decisions. Adjust bids, ad copy, and targeting settings accordingly to improve your campaign's effectiveness. Utilize Ad Extensions: Take advantage of ad extensions to enhance your ads with additional information, such as call extensions, sitelink extensions, or location extensions. This can improve click-through rates and overall ad performance.
After you have a list of keywords, you need to organize them into logical groups based on their themes, topics, or products. This will help you create more targeted and relevant ads and landing pages for each group. You can use different types of keyword match types, such as exact, phrase, or broad match, to control how closely your keywords match the search queries. You can also use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant or low-quality traffic. Organizing your keywords will help you improve your quality score, which affects your ad rank and cost per click.
When deciding how much to pay for each click on your keywords, you can choose between manual and automated bidding strategies. If you want more control and flexibility, you can opt for manual bidding and set your own bids for each keyword or ad group. Automated bidding, on the other hand, allows Google to adjust your bids based on your goals and budget. Common automated bidding strategies include maximizing clicks, conversions, cost per action (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and impression share. It's advisable to test different bid strategies and monitor their performance over time to find the most suitable one for your campaign.
Finally, you need to make sure that your landing pages are optimized for your PPC keywords and ads. Your landing pages should match the intent and expectation of your visitors, provide a clear and compelling value proposition, and have a strong and relevant call to action. You should also optimize your landing pages for speed, usability, and mobile-friendliness. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Optimize, or Unbounce to test and improve your landing pages.
Bidding on PPC keywords is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process that requires constant testing, analysis, and optimization. By following these best practices, you can increase your chances of running a successful and profitable PPC campaign.
Traffic doesn't matter if you cannot convert the traffic into anything for your business. Keep revisiting landing pages and ensure the shortest and most efficient way for your customers to be able to purchase your solutions.