Paying to play in the digital marketing sphere is a must in 2022. Pay per click is here to stay, but it’s undergoing some changes. Gone are the days of just maximizing 1s and 0s to accomplish your goals. Now, more than ever, you need to incorporate the human element into your pay per click strategy.
What’s the human element, you ask? Thinking smart, not hard, about your overall PC strategy, especially in the face of big changes like automation and more stringent privacy laws.
A big chunk of utilizing pay per click to the fullest is testing. In 2022, A/B and split testing will need to move out of the box more amid anticipated changes from search engines. It’s not just about beating the algorithm anymore. Here’s why.
Privacy
Selecting target demographics used to be a matter of pushing buttons and fill-in-the-blanks. That’s changing as people are becoming more guarded about their information online. In fact, some technology experts are estimating that third-party information gathering, like cookies, are going the way of the dinosaur.
So, what does that mean for targeted ads that reach the customers who are most interested in buying your goods or services? Same as it does with everything pay per click campaign: think outside the box.
A/B Testing and Your Customer
Using pay per click to conduct A/B testing is the bread and butter of digital marketing. Just like any product, why would you launch it if you don’t know how it’s going to perform? If you’re spending your hard-earned money on a campaign, why would you hit the ground running without having an idea of how to test it?
There are a ton of different ways to test how your keywords and content will perform before you make a big investment. We have some PPC tools that you can peruse here.
How do you select the right keywords though? Besides metrics, you should dive into what your targeted demographics are looking for and how it pertains to what you’re selling. What keywords are your customers really looking for? It might not be as simple as “auto parts” if you’re an auto parts store, or “manicures near me” if you own a nail salon. They could be searching for items like: “how to change a headlight” or “nail trends spring 2022.” With A/B testing, you can test multiple possibilities to find the right keywords to bid on.
This process isn’t magic; it can take some trial and error to come up with the right keywords to bid on. It also takes instinct and thinking outside of the box. If you want to run a campaign for a spring special for hairdos, see what’s trending this year and bid on some keywords. If you have a keyword analyzer, you can see how may people search for your keyword and how competitive it is to bid on it. With a keyword analyzer, you can also discover what the cost per click is so you’ll know how much money the keyword will cost you.
You’re in the driver’s seat
Automation has been a fact of life in pay per click since forever. You tell Google AdWords or Bing what keywords you want to bid on, how much you want to spend, and the platforms does the rest. However, it’s still up to you to do your due diligence and see which ads are working and which ads are just eating your money.
This is why testing your ads is critical to managing a successful pay per click campaign. If this sounds daunting, don’t worry. This is where automation comes in handy. With pay per click campaigns, you’re going to want to test your keyword’s strength in your headline, URL, body text, and its prowess in real searches. This testing goes beyond using automated tools though.
Every time you find a keyword that ranks well in your metrics, throw it in Google or Bing and see what comes up. Are the pages that appear similar to yours? If so, the keyword should be a worthy investment.
Is testing, testing and more testing cutting into your time running your business? As 2022 rolls in, if you find yourself out of ideas or out of time for great pay per click campaigns, we can help! Contact us to find out how to have your set up fee waived at (248) 684-0500 and see the difference in web traffic!