Pay per Click (PPC) Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the fastest ways to get noticed online. Therefore, it can be a valuable marketing channel, especially for a new business that hasn’t had time to acquire organic listings via SEO (search engine optimization).
If you’re not advertising online yet, or if your PPC ad campaigns aren’t delivering cost-effective results, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to attract new customers.
Ad Copy Is Critical to PPC Success
PPC ads can generate a continual flow of leads and sales for your business. But critical to your marketing success is the wording of your PPC ad copy.
Your ad must be compelling. It will compete with other ads on the page and with organic (not paid) search results.
Critical Components for a PPC Ad
PPC ads are short. Each contains three essential elements:
- Headline — Short but critically important
- Body Copy — Two brief lines of text that entice the searcher to click
- URL — A link to your landing page
There isn’t much room to wax poetic about your product or service here. So instead, use action-oriented language and make every word count.
Link to the Most Relevant Page
When visitors click your ad, which page will they see? Tempted to link to your site’s home page? A better approach is to link to the page that is most relevant to your PPC ad copy.
If your ad is about one service or one product, as it should be, link to the page dedicated to that service or product, not to the page that mentions everything your company offers.
If you don’t have a focused page, create a dedicated landing page.
Choose the Right Keywords
To reap the full benefits pay-per-click campaigns can deliver, start with keyword research. Identify your prospective customers, look at public search data to determine what keywords they’re using, and then organize those keywords into ad groups.
Cost-effective PPC advertising requires careful selection of those campaign keywords.
Choose the wrong keywords, and you won’t get traffic to your site, or, even worse, you could end up paying for lots of misguided traffic that doesn’t convert into sales.
Test and Tweak
Buyers are motivated by different things, so you’ll want to try different PPC ad copy and see what gets the best response. For example, in some of your ads, you include your prices. In others, maybe you focus on your 24/7 customer service or your diverse product line.
Use A/B testing to compare different ad versions. Next, check your website’s analytics to determine where your visitors are coming from and what paths they’re taking in exploring your website. Finally, use conversion tracking to evaluate the effectiveness of your ads.
Running your PPC ads for a few weeks will provide you with hard data that you can use to assess your success and fine-tune your ad campaigns. Then, keep tweaking until you’re satisfied with the results.
Feeling Overwhelmed? We Can Help
There’s a lot to think about when writing your PPC ad copy and choosing your keywords. But don’t let the details overwhelm you.
Charlottesville SEO Web Development can create, manage, and monitor your PPC ad campaigns. Hire us to maximize your ROI. Ready to drive a continual flow of leads and sales to your business?
Chances are, your competitors are already using PPC advertising. Shouldn’t you? Call Charlottesville SEO Web Development today at 434-284-2840 (in Virginia), or use our brief contact form to get started!
PPC Resources
- SEMrush for keyword research
- Google’s Keyword Planner (login to your Google Ads account, select from the Tools menu)
- How Google calculates your actual cost per click
- Ignite Visibility article: How Does PPC Work?
