What is a PPC Campaign? 13 Steps to Successful PPC Campaigns

PPC stands for Pay Per Click, it is a model of internet marketing where advertisers pay for their ad whenever their ad is clicked. The ad appears when user search criteria are matched with the keywords linked with ads.

These ads appear on SERP (Search Engine Result Pages). There may be different goals of a PPC campaign by expecting an online user to click the ad and convert it to lead as a purchaser, to increase website traffic, etc.

What is a PPC Campaign? When an advertiser creates the ad they bid on the keyword for which they want to trigger the ad. Apart from bid price, the advertising platform also looks at different factors such as the quality of the ad and ad extensions to determine which ad is suited for the highest position. So it is not just an onetime set up to start with a PPC campaign. It is measurable and trackable.

You can check the performance of your campaign by looking at the different metrics like Impressions, Clicks, Conversions, etc. and your ad performance on different devices and locations. So if you want to succeed in digital advertisement then you have to know how to launch a successful PPC campaign in the right way.

Confused by pay-per-click advertising? You’re not the only one. Google Ads is relatively easy to get started with, but mastering the platform is much more difficult.

In this article, we’ll explain how to prepare for a PPC ad campaign, giving you the blueprint for success with paid advertising.

How to Launch A PPC Campaign?

Here are the fundamental steps that you should take to create a PPC campaign. Some are easier than others, but all are essential if you want to get the most out of Google Ads.

1. Set Your Objectives

Without an end goal, your plan has no direction. Start off by clarifying what it is you want to achieve with this advertising campaign. Do you want more site visitors? More email subscribers? More customers? Define your business objectives before going any further.

2. Determine the Budget

Paying for every click can quickly add up, so you need to be prepared. Unless you have the luxury of a massive budget, you must always seek to optimize your campaign to avoid wasted spend. Consider your industry, your competitors, and the keywords when setting your budget.

3. Define Your Target Audience

Who are you selling to? Do you understand their needs and pain points? With multiple campaigns, you can target various audience segments. For example, you could advertise male and female products separately.

However, both will fail spectacularly if you don’t know your market. Start off by creating detailed buyer personas, which help guide your marketing efforts. By digging deep in social media platforms, niche groups, and forums, you can discover more about the people you want to serve, and then refine these personas to gain a clearer perspective of your target audience.

4. Identify Valuable Keywords

For your campaign to succeed, you need to pick relevant keywords that relate to your business, and also to the needs of your target audience. Imagine you are one of them – what search terms are they using to find the solutions you offer?

5. Narrow the Field with Negative Keywords

Instead of wasting money on irrelevant clicks, stay vigilant by adding negative keywords to your campaign. This will filter out any unqualified leads who use similar, yet unrelated search terms, so that your ad is only displayed to people who may actually buy from you.

6. Identify Competitive Advertising

While some companies mention other brands by name, others choose to remain vague so they don’t inadvertently promote their rivals. When you have a good understanding of your audience, you can compare your brand favorably to the competition, making your ads more attractive to prospective leads.

7. Optimize Your Landing Page

Getting the click is the start, but if users arrive on a landing page that is totally unrelated to the ad or their needs, then they won’t hang around for long.

Your landing page must have a strong focus on CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). You can do this in a number of ways:

• Choose high-converting keywords
• Include quality graphics
• Use compelling language and a strong call-to-action (CTA)

An optimized landing page can boost your clickthrough rate and increase conversions, helping you turn leads into profits.

8. Track Conversions

Whether you are a one-man band with a meager budget or a huge company with deep pockets, you shouldn’t ignore conversion tracking. By installing it on your site, you can determine if your ads are translating into true measures of success in the form of leads, subscribers, and sales.

Performing regular analysis here will help you find the most effective keywords and ads, which help you cut your losses and invest in the areas that are generating results.

9. Focus on the Channels that Work

For some businesses, it may be better to invest in social media advertising, such as Facebook Ads and promotions on LinkedIn or Twitter. Others may find that they fare better in search engine listings or on partner sites. These can work on either a PPC basis or a CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

Analyze your results in the early period, and adjust as you see fit. It may be the case that you can juggle both with success. However, don’t be afraid to focus your efforts on the most lucrative channel.

10. Search Network vs. Display Network

On Google’s Search Network, you can run an ad in various places:

• Next to the organic search results
• On Google Maps, Google Shopping etc.
• On the websites of Google’s search partners

The Display Network is a little different. It helps your brand reach people while they are browsing. This may be on any app, website, or device. Over time, you can determine which avenue works best for you and your goals.

11. Learn From Competitors

No company operates in a vacuum. Rather than ignoring your competition, try to learn from them. With an in-depth competitor analysis, you can glean insights that help you improve your own strategies and methods.

Once you have a better understanding of their ads, landing pages, keywords, offers etc., you will find ways to streamline your conversion funnel.

12. Determine Device Bids

While most people are already shopping on their mobiles, many still prefer to use desktop. Quite often, people browse on mobile, but complete purchases on a desktop or tablet device.

You can adjust your bids are the campaign level, or at the ad group level if you want to adjust each device bid individually. Knowing your audience will help you with these decisions.

13. Identify the Right Reporting Tool

Paid advertising is never a ‘set and forget’ task. You should keep a close eye on all your campaigns and analyze the key metrics to determine if your ads are successful.

PPCexpo offers an automated analytics and reporting suite for novices and experts, agencies and digital marketers, and most importantly, business owners.  There is no configuration required, allowing you to get stuck in with our ready-to-use interactive reports. Save your time and effort by checking out the PPCexpo reports today.

Once You Start PPC, Don’t Stop

As mentioned already, you can’t simply set up your campaign and then forget about it. It’s crucial that you continue to monitor your ads. Only then will you be able to identify the flaws and opportunities.

From your keywords to your ad copy, competitor analysis to customer interests, many things will change in your market. It is the marketers who stay proactive that are more likely to succeed with PPC advertising.