How To Create And Optimize A PPC Strategy In 9 Steps

Search advertising helps increase revenue, drive traffic, and build brand recognition. This goes hand in hand with organic search marketing , which is gaining traction as search advertising increases sales. And that's also how, according to Google, businesses earn an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on paid advertising on Google Ads. But for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to work, they need to be built on a stable foundation. A solid PPC strategy is the key to planning, executing and optimizing paid advertising campaigns. Without a paid search strategy, you risk spending your budget reactively; with a strategy, you can create and refine a targeted, goal-oriented advertising campaign. This article outlines the nine essential steps to a successful PPC strategy, from competitor and keyword research, through ad group creation and landing page design, to optimization and reporting. Regardless of how you plan to organize your bidding on Google Ads ads, we recommend following the same nine steps.

Paid Search Strategy: Planning Phase

Set goals and budget

Paid search strategies can have multiple goals, such as driving growth, generating profits, or even driving conversions for channels other than search. How do you know which goals make sense?

1. Make sure the PPC goals are aligned with the overall digital marketing strategy. For example, if your overall marketing goal for this quarter is to increase website traffic , the PPC strategy should aim to achieve a high site click-through rate. Once this goal is defined, the activities that will help you achieve this goal will become apparent.

2. Make sure your paid marketing goals don't conflict with existing organic marketing activities. Check your organic share of voice for the keywords you want to include in your paid search budget. Figure out how much of voice you are already capturing through SEO efforts and capturing paid traffic here. Analyze carefully before adding keywords that are already driving a large amount of organic traffic to your site for PPC campaigns.

3. Define the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). For example, if the primary goal of the PPC strategy is to generate leads, your KPIs should be the number of sales and marketing qualified conversions you want to generate through paid search, as well as the cost of these individual leads. For this to work, you need to enable conversion tracking in Google Ads.

4. Identify the number of search terms you plan to bid on and the number of clicks you can actually expect from those per month. The number of clicks depends on several factors, including the quality of your ad copy, the strength of your landing page relative to the search query, the aggressiveness of competitors' bids, and the percentage of people who click on paid ads. A study suggests that 33% of Internet users will click on a paid ad if it answers their query.

5. Identify a break-even point between when your paid marketing efforts start producing a positive return on investment (ROI). This means calculating when you expect to sell enough to cover your initial investment in paid search. If your campaign does not break even within the expected time frame, you may need to reassess. Analyze the competitive landscape

Analyzing the competitive landscape tells you who your top paid search engine competitors are , what makes them successful, and how aggressive your campaign needs to be to compete.

If you don't know who your competition is, use Alexa's audience overlay tool to identify sites competing for your audience. You can then switch to the Competitor Keyword Matrix to view organic and paid keywords for up to 10 competitors. Export these competitor keywords and prioritize them based on their performance against the competition.

Google Ads also offers specific features to help you get ahead of your competition. For example, if you use the share feature with an above target target, Google Ads automatically raises your bids to help you beat a competitor to the top spot. But you can only target one domain to beat at a time, so choose your competitor wisely. Search Keywords

All searches, whether paid or organic, begin with words entered into a search box. This makes user-centric keyword research the foundation of any successful PPC strategy.

You should already have competitor keyword lists from the previous step. It's a good start, but it's not the only way to find PPC keywords. Start with the analog, brainstorming general keywords around product features or verticals. A fashion e-commerce site might start with the generic term “women's shoes,” for example. You can then use tools like the Alexa Difficulty Keyword Tool to construct that main term with related keywords.

If your site has a search function, export all searches from the last 90 days, then categorize them by type. This is a textual list of what people search for once on their site. If you have content or can create content that fulfills search intent, it is worth considering these terms in paid ad campaigns.

Finally, go to your site's Google Search Console and identify existing organic keywords with a high click-through rate. These can also have an equally high CTR when used in paid search campaigns, which will improve the Quality Score of your Google Ads

Paid Search Strategy: Execution Phase

Define your account structure

You are now ready to start executing the paid search strategy. To set up your Google Account, you need to define your campaigns and ad groups. Most accounts will have a few large campaigns and a set of a few ad groups within those campaigns. You set your budget at the campaign level and your keywords at the ad group level.

To define your campaigns, start by going through the terms you've identified from your keyword research and determining the action you want users to take when they click through to your site from those terms. For example, if you sell men's clothing, you can create a campaign for jackets. Perhaps the goal of this campaign is to get people looking for men's jackets to come to your site and make a purchase.

To define your ad groups, review the keywords that will fit into your campaign to determine how to further segment the terms. Remember that you define your keywords at the ad group level. So you want keywords with a similar search objective in the same ad group.

For example, someone searching for the phrase “sports coats for men” will search for something different than those searching for “winter coats for men”. These application requirements will not lead people to the same destination (more details below). Write effective ad copy

Within your different ad groups, you define your text ads. Effective ad copy is crucial for PPC campaigns: it can increase quality score, reduce cost per acquisition, and increase click-through rates. People will rely almost entirely on what you write to decide whether to click on your ad. It is therefore worth investing in this step.

Familiarize yourself with the search engine 's basic rules regarding ad text; ads that violate these rules may be removed. Once that's done, you can focus on writing compelling, click-worthy copy. Follow these best practices: Use the target keyword at least once in the ad title and body copy. 1.Include action terms like “sign up” at the start of the ad copy so the user knows what to expect when they click. Match these goals to your PPC strategy goals.

2.Include a price or statistic in the ad copy. Searchers are drawn to ads that make concrete promises. Be sure to deliver on those promises on the landing page.

3. Lead with benefits. “Men's Winter Jacket” with product features; try “Stay warm all winter long with this men's jacket” instead.

4. Do not forget the URL to display. Searchers look for a URL copy to guide their navigation. So make sure the display URL is user-friendly and descriptive of where they will land.

5. Check competitor ad copy and differentiate yourself. Even if you're betting on the same keyword, try to create more compelling and actionable copy.

6. Test, optimize, and retest ad copy to see what works best. even a small change can affect PPC ROI. The Search Engine Journal has good advice on running tests on ad copy. Build Conversion-Optimized PPC Landing Pages

Your ads should lead people to specially created landing pages. The closer the match between landing page content and search intent, the higher the conversion rate. If you just send everyone to a generic page, say your homepage, they will get frustrated and bounce back. This will negatively impact Quality Score, which means ads will be less likely to show up in searches.

Most importantly, keep the messaging and keyword consistency between the ad text and the landing page. Optimizely found that changing just three words to make landing page copy more similar to ad copy increased conversions by 39%. Follow their lead by repeating the search terms and unique selling point of your brand in the ad in the header and body copy of the landing page.

Each landing page should have only one call to action based on your key metric from the planning stage. If your goal is to get people to sign up for a free trial, make that the only CTA on the page.

Keep the design simple and user-friendly. Items that slow the page to load (e.g. large image files) should be kept to a minimum, forms should contain only the most essential fields, and testimonials or reviews should add social proof. Your only goal at this point is to get the visitor to complete your campaign goal. Avoid anything that could distract him

Paid Search Strategy: Optimization Phase

Identify negative keywords

You can't just set your paid search strategy on autopilot once you've completed the execution stage; A successful Google Ads strategy involves constant changes. This is what we call the optimization phase.

Start by identifying ineffective keywords using the Google Ads Search Conditions report. Look for keywords that show high impressions but low CTR. Consider marking them as negative keywords. It just means your ad won't show up when people search for that keyword. By removing negative keywords, you focus your budget on the best performing keywords and increase your chances of increasing CTR, which will help improve the Quality Score.

Now is also the time to limit broad match campaigns. Broad match means your ads will appear on relevant variations of your keywords, even if they're not in your keyword lists. It's a great way to kick off a campaign, but too long a targeting period can result in wasted advertising dollars. Focus on terms that have a high conversion rate and limit them to a phrase match or even an exact match.

Remember to allow campaigns to generate a reasonable amount of data before you start editing them. Increase ROI

ROI for paid search is determined by your paid search campaign goals, such as cost per click or cost per conversion. Maximizing paid search ROI means paying less and getting the same (or even better) results.

In the short and medium term, improve the return on investment of your campaign by better distributing your budget. You can do this by ruthlessly dropping low-performing keywords and reallocating budget to high-performing ad groups.

In the long run, work to increase your Quality Score. This might involve improving the landing page experience, writing more compelling ad copy, or writing ads closer to the user's intent. Higher quality scores mean the money you spend on ads will go further, which will go a long way toward maximizing ROI.

Be aware that you need to evaluate a campaign's ROI differently, depending on the context. For example, a campaign targeting buyer-facing keywords will have a better ROI than a top-of-funnel campaign. The key is to look for an increase in ROI when optimizing rather than applying general benchmarks to different campaigns. Measure and report

Metrics and reporting should be integrated into the paid search strategy. If you do not schedule measurement activities, reporting will fail.

How you present ad performance depends on the goal of your PPC strategy. That said, you'll find most of the information you need in Google Ads reports. Some of the basic reports are:

1. Auction Overview: Compares you to competitors. Use this report to plan tactical activities.

2. Search Terms: Shows terms that generate clicks. Use this report to identify negative keywords and identify keywords for an exact match.

3. Campaign Performance: Shows performance at the campaign level. Use this report to get an overview of performance over time.

4. Ad Performance: Explains the performance of each of your ads. Use this report to research topics around ad copy and calls to action.

If you report paid search results monthly, include month-over-month increases and decreases, as well as the context surrounding those changes. For example, if the number of conversions increased due to seasonality, this should be included in the report. End with the expected impact on the long-term goals and determine the activities you will do next month to reinforce (or improve) the current results. A strong PPC strategy equals better results It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of auctions and forget to apply strategic thinking to pay-per-click marketing. Take a step back and invest your time in building a solid foundation for paid advertising.

Focus on execution and optimization activities that are closely aligned with the intended goals. Remember that successful PPC strategies have been tested and tweaked from day one. This will allow you to determine which activities are generating income and which are costing you money. Your wallet will thank you.

If you're looking for a tool to help with PPC keyword and competitor research, sign up for a free trial of the Alexa Advanced Plan. Our tools can help you strategize and set up high-performing PPC campaigns