Industry Insights

A pay-per-click (PPC) targeted ad campaign can help businesses of all sizes, and all budgets, more effectively reach their intended audience. But even after putting your money where your ads, and their eyes, are, the results might not be as robust as you’d hoped.  

Here’s how to get a bigger bang for your buck when it comes to PPC ads.  

1. Start with a clear vision for your audience.  Think about how you’re trying to reach. What jobs do they have? What are their interests? What does market research say about the tendencies of this audience? Take that information and use it to more specifically hone in on where these people are most likely to see your ad and have it catch their eye. Use that information, too, to build your copy, your visuals and the overall presentation to make it highly relevant for this audience. Programs like Google Ads can help you specifically select targets and filters to help reach a higher percentage of people likely to be moved to click by your ads.  

2. Pick the right platform. Based on the information you have about your audience, consider where they’re most likely to be active online. If you’re marketing services, consider more professional-leaning platforms, like LinkedIn, over something more lighthearted like Instagram or SnapChat. If you want to find new members of a group or you’re offering something geared toward a slightly older audience, Facebook might be a better platform to reach your potential customers. Google ad space and sponsored posts might be a wise investment if the product you’re marketing needs to be bumped up to the top of the search results list.  

3. Choose your words carefully. If you’re going in big on Google Adwords, consider the language and terms you’re putting into your ad. Search engine optimization (SEO) has been the buzz phrase in content for a long time but when it comes to ads, preference is now given to what’s called natural language search (NLS), using phrases and words that, as the idea suggests, sound more conversational and less advertise-y. NLS uses phrases people say in actual conversations in everyday life, meaning it incorporates search terms people are more likely to use when looking for whatever it is you might be selling. It’s also growing in popularity as more people use voice search and voice-to-text tools on their phones and other devices.  

4. Build dedicated landing pages for each ad. If your company is marketing a series of products or services in a single campaign, understand that each component might have a different audience waiting for it. By segmenting your landing pages and having a dedicated website for each portion of your campaign, a potential customer can find, easily and directly, exactly the information they’re looking for about a product they’re more likely to want or need, without having to sort through information on items that are not of interest to them.  

5. Automation, automation, automation. Sometimes we can get in our own way and overthink a campaign out of effectiveness. Platforms that welcome PPC campaigns offer automated rules that allow you to adjust your price and your campaign based on criteria you and your team determine before the ad launches. The parameters are up to you: You control how often and during what time of day the boosted ads are distributed, how much or how little you want to pay per appearance, at what rate of click-through you want to pause the campaign and when to put more or less money behind an ad. If your office is swamped with projects and/or your staffing is short, meaning there’s less time to carefully watch how your campaign is performing, an automated campaign can help keep things moving along and adapt accordingly to an increase, or decrease, in interest.  

PPC campaigns can be a great value to your company if done correctly. Knowing a few tools of the trade gives you an advantage in making sure your funds are spent wisely and effectively.  

For more insight on PPC and boosted advertising, contact Method Recruiting. Our digital marketing experts can provide advice on what tools should be at your disposal and the best methods for targeting your audience. Give the Method team a call today and watch your returns improve!