6 Ingredients to a Successful PPC Strategy for Google Ads

PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, advertising is a search engine marketing strategy when you need results NOW.

Buying Google Ads pushes your content to the very top of the search engine results pages with a “Sponsored” tag. Unlike its cousin, search engine optimization (SEO), which works to create a long-lasting search presence over time, PPC gets you in front of your target audience immediately.

However, PPC ads only provide front-row visibility if you keep paying, and it can cost a pretty penny.

When you build out a PPC strategy, it needs to be done the right way. Otherwise, you’ll end up flushing money down the toilet. In this post, we explain six crucial ingredients to a successful Google Ads campaign. Let’s get moving. 

1. A Solid Landing Page

The purpose of running Google Ads is to bring traffic to a desired web page or a landing page via search engines. When someone clicks on your search ads, they will be directed to your landing page. You will then be charged for that “click” – hence the name Pay Per Click.

This landing page is then responsible for guiding the visitor to take action, whether it’s buying a product, booking a consultation, ordering a service, etc.  

Think of the landing page as the engine of your PPC strategy. All other parts of the car could be functioning perfectly, but if the engine isn’t working well, you’re not going anywhere.

The landing page is the first point of interaction between the user and the business after clicking your Google Ad. The design, content, and user experience of that page will either make or break your PPC strategy.

A well-designed and optimized landing page improves the site’s relevance, Quality Score (which reduces the cost per click), and nurtures decision-making to encourage the desired action.

The bottom line: Make sure the landing page is perfected before you dive into a PPC campaign – have a professional look at it.

2. Proper Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of any PPC strategy.

This process involves identifying the most relevant search terms or phrases that your customers would search on Google to find the products or services you offer, then bidding on them to showcase your ad.

If you are a personal injury law firm in New York, people would be entering relevant keywords and phrases like “personal injury firm NY”, “personal injury lawyer in NYC”, etc., you would want your Google Ad to show up when people search these phrases.

Keyword research serves the following roles in a PPC strategy:

Finding the Right Customers

Keyword research is all about showing your ads to the right people. If you bid on the right keywords, your Google Ad will be shown to users who need your product/service, and ideally, take the desired action on your landing page.

Stretch Every Dollar in the Budget

Keyword research can do a lot to optimize your budget, and every penny is precious. Over time, you’ll start to see that certain keywords/phrases provide better returns. With this information, you can allocate your budget and ad groups accordingly.

Boost Quality Score

Google Ads uses a metric called Quality Score, which measures how relevant your ad is to a certain user. Keywords are a central role in this score. If your PPC assets are super relevant to the user, you will have a higher Quality Score. This works to lower costs per click (CPC) and provide better ad positions.

Informing Your SEO Strategy

The transactional keywords you find in your PPC campaign can be used to inform your larger SEO strategy. Ideally, you’ll get to a point with SEO where you won’t need to rely as heavily on paid ads for conversions and the keywords you find with PPC can help a lot to drive results down the road.

The bottom line: Keyword research is about understanding how your potential customers find your product/service via search engines and fuels your PPC marketing strategy.

3. Professional Ad Copywriting

Your Google Ad is the first impression between prospective customers and your product/service.

If you look at a Google Search Ad, it’s all about copywriting – there are no images, graphics, or anything else; just words with links attached to them.

Copywriting influences the click-through rates (CTR) and overall performance of your PPC strategy.

It is up to the copywriter to craft compelling headlines, descriptions, and calls to action in line with the keywords, target customers, and brand voice.

Expert copywriting improves the chances of users clicking the ad, visiting the landing page, and of course, taking the desired action. Without good copywriting, your ad will struggle to get people to click – which is half the battle of PPC.

The bottom line: Don’t take any shortcuts with ad copywriting. If you’re not a professional, hire someone who is.

4. A Streamlined Conversion Path

The conversion path is the journey in which a site visitor will take from clicking on your ad to taking the desired action on the landing page.

In most cases, this process involves a series of touchpoints. Say you’re an attorney running a PPC campaign to promote a landing page that directs people to book a consultation. The conversion path would likely be:

Clicking on the ad > interacting with the landing page > filling out an online form > getting a confirmation page for the meeting.

You should have a clear conversion path mapped out before you run the PPC campaign. More importantly, it should be streamlined as much as possible.  

The bottom line: The more steps a customer has to take, the more chances they have to reconsider their decision. Make sure your conversion path is concise, with no extra flair.

5. Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is all about understanding the effectiveness of your PPC strategy.

This will involve analyzing every action users take after clicking your ads. These actions, also called conversions, may involve booking a consultation, signing up for a newsletter, filling out a form, buying a product, or any other action that adds value to your business.

Conversion tracking serves many roles in your business, including:

Evaluating Performance

Conversion tracking gives you tangible and measurable data to evaluate how well your PPC strategy is performing. You can simply compare the number of users who clicked on your ad to those who completed a conversion. From here, you can get a tangible grasp of the performance of your campaign.

Calculating ROI

ROI is the most important metric in a PPC strategy. Conversion tracking allows you to calculate your ad spend and understand the values of different conversions, and what they add to your business.

Optimizing the PPC Strategy

By tracking conversions, you will see trends as to which keywords, ad copies, and landing pages are driving the most conversions. With this information, you can tweak your PPC strategy to make sure you’re only using the best-performing campaign elements, and adjust your budget accordingly.

The bottom line: Conversion tracking is about measuring the effectiveness of your paid search campaign. Without it, you’re essentially taking shots in the dark.

6. Data Analysis

Everything in your PPC strategy will come down to data analysis.

It provides a detailed look into your campaign’s performance, customer behavior, ad effectiveness, and more. This (ideally) provides the insights you need to make continuous improvements.

Furthermore, data analysis works to reveal customer demographics and interests, which is crucial to properly target and personalize your ads.

The bottom line: No PPC is perfect on the first try, and customer behavior changes constantly. By analyzing your PPC data, you can find the insights in Google Analytics and other tracking tools needed to continuously set yourself up for success.

The Wrap

Running a PPC campaign isn’t a job for a free evening, and it’s not something you can just check on every once in a blue moon and hope for the best. A PPC strategy needs to be planned out in detail, executed properly, and meticulously tracked.

Otherwise, there is a good chance you will not see the returns you want.

At Law Edge Solutions, we provide support for PPC campaigns, in addition to website design, development, SEO, and content writing.

For any questions or pointers, feel free to schedule a strategy call with us today!