While it’s not exactly news at this point, we were excited when Google opened an office in Detroit. It’s great for the business community and of course created focus on the low-hanging fruit that Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can provide for small and mid-sized businesses.
PPC is a critical tool in the marketing arsenal that gets immediate results. The fine print to this promise, of course, is that this is only the case when the system is set up well and optimized over time.
If not, you can quickly rack up some expensive traffic that contributes little or nothing to leads and sales. Or, at the very least, costs you much more than you need to pay per lead.
The good news is that by delving into the details and getting strategic, a few tweaks can make for a fast-turnaround.
What follows are three common mistakes that reduce ROI and what to do about them to get your marketing system even more profitable.
Keep the Right Keywords, Lose the Rest 
You are probably familiar with the keywords selected for your various campaigns and ad groups. But if you want your mind blown, take a look at the search terms report that details what searches actually trigger your ads and subsequent clicks. It’s a lot of terms you’d never expect.
Prioritizing and controlling what keywords/search terms trigger ads is a huge way to immediately control your costs, allocating resources only to the ones that work.
Depending on how hands-on your digital marketing partner is, ask them on what keywords are likely to be successful. Use different keyword types (e.g. exact, phrase, modified broad, negative) to allow for tight control over what searches trigger your ads.
From there, let the data dictate which keywords you continue to let run (for those not working, either pause the keyword or create a negative keyword).
Create an Optimized End-to-end Solution
If you’re getting clicks, but no leads or sales from any keywords, the problem could be further downstream. The whole sales and marketing funnel has to work for your PPC channel to realize its potential.
A typical issue that prevents conversions is a poorly designed landing page. The landing page is where they go after they click on your PPC ad. Their expectations must be met once they arrive on your landing page. This means there needs to be alignment between the keyword/search term, ad copy, and landing page.
Additionally, in order for landing pages to convert, conversion needs to be the only option for visitors to the page. The key focus is to further sell your offering and call to action, either filling out a lead form or starting the purchase process. It’s critical to eliminate other options that would take prospects off the buyer path.
Tighten Your Bids
Sometimes a keyword does a fairly good job of converting, but the ROI is not worth the click. In this case, it’s important to look at how much you’re bidding for the keyword.
One of the biggest errors is bidding too high on desirable keywords. Of course, you want to show up, but consistently being in the first position will rack up higher than necessary click charges. Getting in the second and lower positions may reduce your clicks to some but get you a much better return.
Finding the Right PPC Solution for Your Business
When deciding who to entrust your marketing efforts to, it’s critical to make sure you’re getting a responsive and effective service that gets to know your business and delivers results.
Smart Link Solutions works locally with small-to-medium sized businesses. Our services include plenty of time for hands-on collaboration with you to make sure we get it right.
Learn more about our Pay Per Click ad management service, and take advantage our June special offer: We’ll waive your setup fee (normally $300-$500) if you sign up for our PPC management service in the month of June. All you have to do is mention you saw this offer in our blog or newsletter! Contact our PPC experts today and let’s get started!