5 PPC tips for Marketers in the ‘New Normal’
Written by Lou Becamel is a PPC Account Director, at Reprise followed our recent webinar
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the Paid Search sector and the way in which marketers are choosing to move forward with their PPC campaigns. Whilst we are steadily going back to the ‘new normal’, there are things you can do to ensure you make the most of your Paid Search campaign during this unsettling time.
Here are 5 top tips to make your PPC account work harder in this ‘new normal’:
1 – Refine your traffic beyond your keywords with an audience led optimisation
Probably the most obvious change and often the first to get axed, is your audience set up. Reaching the right audience is key to getting the most out of your paid search spend, especially as we return to a ‘new normal’.
Of course keywords play an integral part of any PPC campaign. They have been the gold standard in directing traffic towards your landing pages, and subsequently converting them into leads. However, another level of value, beyond just keywords, can be found when you start using your ad account audiences and playing with your first-data.
At Reprise, we harness the value of our client first-party data to reach people who lack purchase intent, capture ‘ready to buy’ leads, as well as re-market your existing customers.
2 – Max out your creative game
Probably my favourite part when it comes to PPC and campaign optimisation, by combining this with the precision targeting mentioned previously, you can create an extra layer with launching engaging creative. Today there are so many different options to diversify your ad game, traditionally including Dynamic Search Ads or Responsive Search Ads. As well as with Discovery campaigns, image extensions, lead forms more recently etc. Make sure you make the most of your creative capabilities – PPC is not only purely ad on the SERP, you can advertise on Youtube, App campaigns or Display network.
Three golden rules to follow when going back to this ‘new normal’:
1. Optimised ad rotation
2. At least 3 extensions per ad group
3. At least 3 ads per ad group, including one RSA
3 – Take advantage of the bidding strategy
Whist many PPC advertisers have been pausing their campaigns, it may not have been the best thing to do. There are several things you can do to ensure your paid search ads remain present efficiently on the page, with one of the most relevant actions being to take advantage of the bidding strategy available on Google Ads. Depending on your campaign goal (visibility, website clicks, revenue etc), identify the appropriate bidding strategy (Maximum Clicks, target CPA, target ROAS etc) designed to boost the results of your Google Ads campaign and get the most out of your set budget.
At Reprise, we assist in helping our clients choose the right automated bidding strategy for their business, and have witnessed the Google algorithm adapting quickly to this new landscape, subsequently increasing performance significantly during this recovery period.
4 – Track your micro conversions
Micro conversion refers to the incremental actions users take on your website which are not specifically tracked. Most of the time they are a step towards the main (macro) goal, and can provide perpetual insights into how customers are engaging with your website. The majority of website visitors won’t go on to make a purchase for example, and therefore won’t result in your macro conversion, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that this traffic is worthless. This is where tracking micro conversions can help. For example, this could be through a newsletter sign up, a download, video views; anything that helps identify a drop in conversions and removing any friction within the customer journey.
With the Reprise FLOW© methodology, we are continuously supporting our clients through the customer journey along the path to purchase. We help to identify these key moments and set them up on the account for stronger optimisation.
5 – Don’t use PPC in silo!
Paid Search is part of an overall ecosystem within the Digital Marketing space. Viewing PPC as part of your holistic media plan will be key when going back to this ‘new normal’. PPC works extremely well alongside a tight SEO, Paid Social or Programmatic campaign, especially when you start thinking of attribution modelling (but this will be for another conversation).
Our final recommendation? Look into diversifying your digital strategy. You will have to revoke some previous learning pre-COVID, and prepare yourself to test & reassess in this new landscape (that will be key to success!).
Lou Becamel is a PPC Account Director, at Reprise with 7-years’ experience in Paid Media. She also lectures Paid Marketing to Master Students at the INSEEC Business School. Get in touch for more information – [email protected]
