As every experienced PPC agency can confirm, in the world of PPC marketing, testing means knowledge. You test your CTAs, ad copy, images, headlines, your placement, your keywords. Basically, you test every aspect of your campaign. Whether you are trying to grow your business or just exploring tricks to power up your campaign, there are always some overlooked optimizations that can increase your PPC conversion rate. In this text, our Chicago PPC agency will explore some of them.
Run a branded campaign
Today’s competitive market asks for branded campaigns. If you are not bidding on your name, there is a chance that your competitors are. Although people are looking for your particular brand, if your ad is not the first one in the paid search, you are giving the user a chance to look at a competitor. A branded campaign will protect your brand name against competitors and deter them from getting your clicks, impressions, and conversions.
Create a branded campaign targeting your branded keywords that include the main service or product people would be looking up when searching for your company. The branded campaign can increase your brand’s visibility, your CTR, and what is most important – conversions and conversion rates in a matter of months.
Test branded ad copy – Headline 1 vs Headline 2
Headline testing is your next opportunity for conversion rate optimization. With a branded campaign you know that users are searching for your brand, so it is a good idea to put your brand name in Headline 1. Tests show that just by putting the brand name in Headline 1 instead of Headline 2 can increase your conversion rate by 9%.
Leverage search impression share
This is a simple, yet effective way to increase the average conversion rate. This metric shows the percentage of impressions your campaign receives compared to the number of impressions it was eligible to receive. A high-converting campaign with a low impression share is the perfect candidate for this kind of optimization. As your search impression share starts to decline, you will need to add more budget to increase visibility and get your ads to show more often. If you do this the right way your conversion rate may triple.
Optimize your landing page conversion rate
There is no one way to do this right. The success of a test differs case by case, and you can find the best outcome only by testing it out yourself. Test all of the aspects of your landing page and see if everything is the way it should be. Just as every business is a story for itself, so is every landing page. As this is the final step of conversion, the place where visitors become customers, you need to make sure that your brand name is included in your landing page copy and that you have a clear and visible CTA button.
Target in-market audiences
In-market audiences are segmented audiences identified as having expressed interest, researched, or looked into purchasing a particular product or service. These segmentations will provide a more granular view of a visitor’s behavior and you will be able to see which groups convert higher for your business so you can advertise to the right people at the right time.
You will have the option to either observe or target these in-market audiences. Experienced PPC agency suggests setting the audiences to observe until you gather enough valuable data. When you determine which audiences perform well with a large number of impressions you should either set a bid adjustment or create a new campaign that is tailored to the group you wish to target.
Placing a positive bid adjustment tells Google that you want to increase your bids by a given percentage on a specific audience, and placing a negative bid adjustment means decreasing your bids.
Add negative search terms
If you are running a high-cost campaign and all you get are unqualified leads, your first idea would probably be to pause that campaign. But, before you do so, you should try and salvage it by adding negative search terms.
Find a high converting keyword in your campaign and see how many times it is mentioned on your landing page. You should find that your highest performing keyword is placed on the landing page several times. Then do the same for a high-cost non-converting keyword. Add those non-converting keywords as negatives. Though you may notice a decrease in leads, those that you get will be higher qualified, and you will eliminate those clicks that cost you money but are not converting.
Final thoughts
Whether you are a PPC expert looking for new strategies or a business owner looking to increase revenue, these simple, yet often overlooked optimizations can increase your conversion rates. Remember that there is no one easy route when navigating the world of PPC. What works for you doesn’t mean that it will work for the next guy. Always try different practices and have fun with your campaign. And no matter what you do – DON’T FORGET TO TEST!
