PPC ads are one of the types of advertising that can produce the quickest results. You can get immediate exposure to a new audience and more traffic to your website. And when PPC can increase brand awareness by 80%, it’s the perfect option for new companies that want to stand out.
However, you’ll need to do some work to make sure your PPC ads are effective.
Making sure your PPC advertising strategy is working as planned is vital, but it isn’t always easy to see that there is a problem. Read the guide below to learn what to look for when you think your PPC marketing campaign isn’t working.
Low Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Your click-through rate is what tells you how effective your ads are. Even if you aren’t paying any money because you get charged per click, you still need people to visit your website if you want to make sales.
Examine the average click-through rate you can expect when running paid ads. If yours is too far below what’s expected, it’s a sign that you haven’t put enough thought into your ad.
You’ll need to change your headline and advertisement text to make it more appealing to potential customers.
High Cost Per Click (CPC)
There’s no getting around having a high cost per click in some industries. Competition is fierce, so you’ll need to pay a premium to get attention in those industries.
But that doesn’t mean every sector is that way. You can still find some deals in specific markets. And depending on the keywords you target, you may also be able to compete in more competitive markets.
Check which keywords you’re bidding on if you think your CPC is too high. You may be able to find ways to target lower-competition keywords and make your ads more targeted to decrease your click-through costs.
Bad Quality Score
Google wants to ensure the ads users click on are relevant to their searches and intent. If someone clicks an ad and sees an irrelevant offer, it leads to a bad user experience and hurts Google’s image.
That’s why Google assigns a quality score to websites bidding on ads. It considers your ad copy, landing page, and other factors.
A bad quality score indicates that Google doesn’t think your ad is relevant. If this happens, you’ll see a higher cost per click and pay more than necessary for your ads. Check out the other offers for the keywords you bid on to see if your copy and landing pages align with user intent.
Low Conversions
A great PPC ad isn’t enough to make a great PPC campaign. You must still convince potential customers to buy your product once they land on your website.
If you see a high click-through rate on your ads but aren’t seeing conversions, it’s a sign that you don’t have an offer that aligns with what searchers want. You’re wasting money on ads in this situation.
You either need to change your ad messaging and keywords to target the right people or modify your landing page to inform your visitors better.
Poor Keyword Performance
As time goes on and you gather data, you’ll probably notice that certain keywords produce better results. Not every search term has buyer-intent traffic. People are looking for information and aren’t interested in buying products.
If you target enough of these keywords, it’s a sign that you haven’t optimized your ad campaign. Look through your conversion history to see which keywords are producing sales.
Remove the ones that aren’t, and add negative keywords for the terms that never produce results. If you have trouble narrowing down your keywords, try PPC ads management for expert help.
High Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate tells you how long visitors stay on your landing page. If someone sticks around and browses your website, your bounce rate will be low. People are interested and will keep reading more.
But if your bounce rate is high, it’s a sign that you’re attracting visitors who are not interested in buying. In this situation, you may be targeting the wrong people, or your landing page isn’t relevant to your ad.
Make sure you test your landing page to align with visitor expectations.
Poor Targeting
You can reach a large number of people when using PPC ads, but that doesn’t mean you should. There are specific audience segments more likely to buy and spend money. If you spend money trying to reach an audience that converts less, you may waste your money.
Spend your ad dollars on an audience more likely to buy. Doing this will help you get the most from your ad dollars and avoid wasting cash.
Refine your audience personas and create ads that match those profiles.
Bad Return on Investment
Unfortunately, PPC can get expensive. The ads market is highly competitive. You can’t spend a few pennies on a click anymore and expect great results.
This means you need excellent optimization to get a return on your investment — and that isn’t possible with an unoptimized campaign.
Keep a close eye on your return to make sure you’re getting the most from your money. You probably won’t have a good ROI initially. But you should be able to improve it over time as you optimize your ads.
Keep Watch Over Your PPC Advertising Strategy
You may have a lot of money on the line when running a pay-per-click campaign. You need to invest money to gather data, but if you make the wrong choices, none of your ads will produce any results.
That’s why you must always be on your guard when managing a PPC advertising strategy. When you pay attention to the right things, you can find the details that aren’t working and take action to correct course. Remember the problems above to determine when you need to modify your marketing campaign.
Do you have future plans to try out new marketing ideas? Learn more about advertising your business on the blog.
