PPC best practices are always relevant, however the strategies we use to implement them often change. This is due to things such as platforms evolving, companies growing, and customer behaviors shifting.
We have seen many difficult changes in the past year or so from Google, Apple, and Facebook, all in the name of automation, privacy, and pandemics.
I’m going to share 8 PPC strategies that can help overcome challenges.
PPC strategies you need to be using in 2021
While the strategies and tools mentioned in the text are not new, their increased importance in today’s PPC landscape is novel. With changes to Google and Facebook’s ad platforms, some strategies that were once ineffective are now becoming more useful.
1. Pair broad match with audience targeting to succeed without modified broad
Google’s decision to retire modified broad match was based on the argument that broad match is now more effective in terms of generating results, and that modified broad and phrase match often have the same purpose. The PPC community generally disagreed with this assessment. Even if broad match is more effective, it will always carry the risk of wasting money on traffic that is unlikely to convert.
There is a workaround that allows you to get the benefits of broad match while minimizing the risk.
How to do it:
You can create a workaround for the limitations of broad match keywords by pairing them with larger affinity, in-market, and custom audiences.
In short, your ad will only be shown to people who fit your target audience and who are searching for something closely related to your broad match keyword.
If you use broad match, you will at least be shown to people who are searching for relevant terms, which will reduce the amount of risk involved. You may also find new terms or audiences to target.
This strategy is helpful if you’re looking to:
- Safely scale your campaigns
- Increase brand awareness
- Discover new keywords
- Increase your impression share for a given area
Before you begin, check your campaign setup to make sure there are no restrictions or exclusions that could make this strategy ineffective. You will also need a good negative keyword list to start with.
For more help with this strategy, head here.
You can find more opportunities to improve your Google Ads performance by using our Free Google Ads Performance Grader. This tool will help you identify areas where you can make improvements to your campaigns, so you can get better results in a shorter amount of time.
2. Turn YouTube Studio into a video and display ad optimization tool
YouTube Studio, when connected with a Google Ads account, becomes a tool that is not only useful for video ad optimization, but for other things as well.
The YouTube Studio provides data and insights that are not available through standard Google Ads reporting.
What you can do:
- Plug leaks in spend: In the Device type report, you can add the “Card clicks” and “Average percentage viewed” columns to find any device types that are showing your ads but not getting any card clicks.
While looking at your “Card Clicks” column, you may notice that TV, game console, and tablet placements could be costing you money.
- Build custom audiences: In the External Sources report, you can identify sources outside of YouTube that are sending traffic to your videos and then use them to build custom audiences for Display, Video, or Discovery campaigns.
- Get placement ideas: In the Suggested Videos report, find out which videos you’re appearing for in the closing suggestions and use them for video or channel placement ideas.
- Perfect your video ads: The Key Moments report will show you the exact moments in your videos when viewers engaged or dropped off. It doesn’t get any more specific than that!
3. Get new keyword ideas with Microsoft Advertising Intelligence
Microsoft Advertising Intelligence is a keyword planning tool that you can access by downloading a plugin for Excel. The tool provides a lot of information that can be overwhelming, but when used correctly, it can help you find new keywords that you might not be able to find through the limited Search Terms Report.
How to use it:
You enter a list of keywords into an Excel interface on the tool, then receive a list of recommendations for those keywords including volume, bid estimates, and other metrics.
But that’s only the beginning. Now you can get more granular with different views:
- Traffic: Organize by device (not match type) to get a duplicate-free list of keywords with total searches in the past month.
- Age group and gender: Identify keywords that get searched but not by the right audience.
- URL: Paste a list of URLs in to get keyword suggestions, and then check the device and keyword match type used for those keywords.
- Associated keywords: Find related keywords other advertisers are bidding on and see if it’s feasible for you to compete.
You can use Google Keyword Planner with the new keywords you created. Do not dismiss keywords with low search volume as they may be more popular on other search engines.
You should upload your Microsoft keyword lists to Google and your Google keyword lists to Microsoft for the best performance. You can also use our free keyword tool to get performance data from both Bing and Google in one place.
Learn more about this PPC strategy here.
4. Use display ads for more than just brand awareness
This PPC strategy can help advertisers show their clients how their display ads are affecting their campaign performance. By doing this, advertisers can illustrate that the money spent on display ads is worth it.
What you need to do:
- Set up your Display campaign names to always include “display” so you can create a Traffic Source Audience. Or, manually tag your Display URLs with a specific source and medium.
- Make sure your Traffic Source audience is added to both Google Ads and Google Analytics. That way the metrics will appear in the Audiences report.
The numbers in Google Analytics will show you which users did not convert from your Display campaigns but eventually returned to your site via other channels and converted.
Not only can you create audiences in Display, but you can also use them in Search to see what users are searching for after interacting with your Display ads.
5. Create dedicated campaigns for voice searches
There are over one billion voice searches per month. You can incorporate voice search into your paid search and SEO strategy to make your business more successful.
If you want to increase your digital commerce revenue by 30 percent by 2021, you should create a campaign dedicated to voice search. You can research your past campaigns to see what has worked well and try to replicate that success. Once you have your campaign picked, follow these steps to review your keywords:
- Log into your Google Ads account
- Select your ad campaign
- Choose “Keywords” from the sidebar menu
- Click “Search Terms” from the top menu
- Download the report
However, By downloading your report and searching for the phrase “OK Google”, you can identify potential keywords for your voice search campaign. Depending on your industry and business, you may not have any viable keywords, but this is a good place to start.
Don’t worry if you don’t decide to do this now, but it would be a good idea to see if your company could find a new way to target your market that hasn’t been used as much by other companies.
6. Make remarketing a part of your paid search strategy
Remarketing is an amazing way to increase sales. By running a remarketing campaign, you give your business another chance to persuade a potential customer to get in touch, buy your product, or come to your store. However, many businesses don’t include remarketing as part of their paid search strategy.
Even though a remarketing campaign has a smaller audience, it is full of people who are interested and aware of your company. This is a huge advantage in the digital marketplace! Make your PPC strategy more effective with display or search remarketing campaigns.
Before you start your campaign, do some research on your target audience and what your marketing goals are. Then, check your website data in Google Analytics. Once you have all that information, you can build a remarketing audience in Google Analytics. Depending on things like your site traffic and target audience, you may need to wait before launching your campaign.
This is because Google Ads has a minimum number of people that are required for remarketing campaigns. For example, a display remarketing campaign needs 100 people while a search remarketing campaign needs 1000 people.
Many businesses focus on display remarketing because the requirements are significantly different from search remarketing. Either way, a remarketing campaign can improve your paid search strategy.
7. Target competitor brand names with search ads
A common tip for PPC strategies is to target searches for your competitors. By doing this, you can let consumers and business buyers know about your company. This strategy can help you earn more money, as well as take customers away from your competitors.
If you’re looking for information on QuickBooks, one of the best places to start is by searching for “QuickBooks accounting.” This will give you a variety of hits that will provide insight into how the program works and what people think of it.
Upselling requires your team to write creative ad copy that speaks to the searcher’s needs. This search includes paid results for QuickBooks as well as a few of its competitors. If your company uses this paid search strategy, your team (or PPC agency) must create some effective ads. People who are searching for a competitor already know about that company’s advantages. Upselling requires your team to write ads that address the searcher’s needs.
Your target audience may have some loyalty to your business. Your ad copy should highlight your unique selling points and tap into the needs and pain points of your target audience.
To get even better results, your copy should make it clear how your business is better than your competitor, and highlight the downsides of your competitor. This paid search strategy may not get a lot of clicks or conversions, but it will help your company build brand awareness. A user may see your ad, then visit your competitor’s site, and finally come to your site later.
This strategy is worth trying in your PPC campaigns.
8. Get a PPC audit to refresh your PPC strategy
If you are having difficulty succeeding with your PPC campaigns despite putting in a lot of effort, you are not the only one. PPC is not a simple task, and many businesses find it difficult to create campaigns that are both successful and reasonably priced.
PPC audits are a paid search strategy that can be beneficial to your campaigns. A PPC agency or PPC consultant will take a close look at your strategies and campaigns, including your keyword research, audience targeting, and bids. They will also assess your budget to determine what is preventing your campaign from being successful.
They give you suggestions on how to make your campaign better which is helpful for your business. Plus, your team will learn more about paid search strategies that could be useful for your company specifically. Even though an audit isn’t free, it will save your business money eventually.
Your company can improve your campaign based on feedback from your agency or consultant, which can lead to a higher CTR, lower CPC, and greater ROI.
Use these 8 PPC strategies to move with the direction of advertising in 2022
I said from the beginning that these strategies and tools have been around for a while, but they’re becoming popular again as the PPC world moves towards privacy-first (and automated) options.
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