Implementing a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is one of the most effective ways to boost your brand presence and get new leads. If managed successfully, you can maximize your return on investment (ROI) by 50% or even more. A successful PPC campaign requires a lot of research and strategic planning. You need to stay consistent with your methods to accomplish your objectives. In this article, we will walk you through some of the basics when starting a Google Ads campaign for your business.
Setting Your PPC Goals: Why Is It Important?
Just like search engine optimization (SEO) and other digital marketing strategies, goal setting is the initial and most important step when launching a PPC campaign. This determines the strategy and project workflow. Without knowing your objectives, it can be difficult for you to track your progress and measure success.
Before creating a PPC plan, take the time to think about your business goals. This should help you identify your specific objectives allocated to your paid ads campaigns and budget, as well.
You can start by asking yourself questions like:
• What am I trying to accomplish with my paid ads?
• What are the most important metrics in my business?
• What outcome do you foresee?
• Does your business work from leads?
Asking these questions and clearly defining your goals will help you make the right decisions when going through your workflow.
How to Set Goals For Your PPC Campaigns
Assess Your Business Needs
As mentioned earlier, considering your business needs will also help identify your goals for your PPC campaigns. What are you trying to achieve from your paid search ads? Why do you think your business needs a pay-per-click strategy? Answering these questions puts you in the right direction when creating a PPC plan that aligns with your business goals.
Define Achievable And Challenging Goals
Set clear, specific and realistic PPC goals. On the flip side, goals should be challenging and may involve complex steps to achieve. If the goals are too easy, what’s the point? Each goal should inspire you and your team because it’s challenging — but with the strategic planning and data-driven solution (and a bit of tenacity), it’s totally achievable.
Establish Short- And Long-Term Goals
In PPC, you can set goals for any timeframe. They could be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually — depending on the scope of your campaigns. Establishing goals for these timeframes is ideal for PPC campaigns. Short-term goals create benchmarks for a wider scope or high-level accounts. On the other hand, long-term goals determine the overall performance of your pay-per-click strategy.
When setting goals for your PPC campaigns, make sure you’re looking at similar timeframes that provide parallel comparisons. This makes it easier for you to gauge your campaign’s performance.
Focus On the Output Of Your Campaign
If you set a goal of “adding 300 new keywords to my account,” you might need to rethink your goals. Take note that goals should focus on the output of your efforts, not the input. Focus on results, not the strategy to reach your objectives. This is a common mistake for some businesses and digital marketers.
Rather, your goal should indicate: “By January 2020, we will increase sales by 3% over December 2019 and decrease our cost-per-acquisition (CPA) by 1%.” Once you’ve established specific goals, then it’s time to identify the strategy to get you there.
Set Baseline and Stretch Goals
Setting goal tiers provide more direction to your PPC campaign. It also motivates your team more. The baseline goal serves as a threshold for success; while the stretch goals are usually the overwhelming objectives.
Analyze Goal Performance
Analyzing goal performance is vital to every digital marketing campaign. Don’t just focus on hitting the goal. You also need to determine why or how you achieved the results. The same thing goes for objectives you didn’t hit. Find out the root cause and how to resolve them. Remember, learning is the best thing you can get from this process.
Common PPC Goals: Which One Is Best For Your Business?
PPC GOAL #1: Boost Site Traffic
Recommended PPC Plan: Focus on CTR
One of the advantages of PPC advertising is you can easily quantify the results of your campaign by looking into the number of clicks and impressions your ads receive. You can also set the target number of impressions you want to reach daily or weekly. Gauge brand awareness by referring to the click-through-rate (CTR), which allows you to see the volume of engagement for your current ads.
To generate more site traffic, you need compelling and powerful ads. Conduct in-depth keyword research and work on your content marketing strategy. A successful paid search ad requires high-quality and relevant content.
PPC GOAL #2: Increase Sales Or Leads
Recommended PPC Plan: Boost Conversions
If your goal is to generate more sales or leads, focus on getting more conversions. Utilize the PPC conversion tracking tool and evaluate significant data. Update your campaign strategy based on your PPC audit findings. For instance, if you notice that the long-tailed keyword “best PPC agency in Dallas” is giving you more conversions than other keywords in that category, then it’s better to allocate more of your budget to that keyword.
The following steps should help increase your conversions:
Prioritize Converting Keywords
Keyword research is vital to your bidding strategy. As much as possible, you want to bid more on converting keywords. Check the locations and analyze various tiered bidding strategies.
Keep Track Of The Negatives
Re-evaluate your click-through rate. Take note of the keywords not converting and set them as negatives. Make sure to consistently monitor your PPC campaign.
Continuously Optimize Your Landing Pages
Optimized landing pages can help boost conversion rates. According to PPC strategists, landing pages should be creative, compelling and unique. Keep them simple, neat and captivating. Additionally, build landing pages for the intent of converting your AdWords leads.
PPC GOAL #3: Improve Brand Awareness
Recommended PPC Plan: Take Advantage Of The Display Network And Remarketing
If you’re aiming to raise brand awareness, divert your focus on getting a larger target audience. Find ways to create more positive engagement. Usually, PPC specialists recommend launching promotions or featuring your best products to drive more impressions.
In this scenario, you can take advantage of the Google Display Network. Launch creative display campaigns and look for relevant sites where you can share them. You may want to avoid dull text ads and be more creative with media-rich ad formats, which includes videos and images. In case your budget is a bit restrictive, utilize placement targeting for more exposure. Focus on metrics such as impressions, reach and frequency so you can easily gauge your progress.
Final Words
You may have similar goals, but take note that each business is unique and still requires specific plans and key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on. Reflect on your business needs and requirements. From there, you can easily determine the right goals to set for your pay-per-click campaign. Remember, establishing a clearly defined workflow will save you time, money and effort. Analyze your goals before hiring a PPC agency.
