Few things are as frustrating to pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers as dumping a lot of money into an ad campaign only to have it not produce the desired results. Truth be told, this happens more often than advertisers think. There really is an art to maximizing PPC ad potential.
So, are you frustrated over the fact that your PPC ads are not producing satisfactory results? If so, you don’t have to sit back and do nothing. There are proactive steps you can take to turn things around.
1. Re-Evaluate Your Goals
The first thing you should do is sit down and re-evaluate your PPC goals. It may be that there is nothing technically wrong with your ads or campaigns. They just might not be aligned to your advertising goals.
This is often the case for Google ads campaigns for which automatic bidding is chosen. When you go with automatic bidding, Google asks you to choose one of four primary goals. It then optimizes bid prices based on that goal. If your ads are not aligned with the goal you chose, they are likely to underperform.
2. Look into the Possibility of Ad Fraud
Hopefully, you are utilizing analytics to measure ad performance. If not, that could be the root of your problem. That notwithstanding, use those analytics to investigate the possibility of ad fraud. Ad fraud could be destroying your campaigns through fake clicks, fake leads, and so forth.
As a side note, Fraud Blocker is a software package designed to identify and root out ad fraud. It is not the only game in town, either. A variety of software packages and subscription services offer similar protection. Use should probably use one.
3. Take a Second Look at Keywords
If you were able to rule out goal misalignment and ad fraud, you have no other choice but to consider that your PPC ads are suffering from some sort of technical issue. The place to start is with your keywords. Are you using the right ones? Are your bid prices commensurate with the value of your chosen keywords?
One thing PPC advertisers seem to have trouble understanding is that the most popular keywords don’t always produce the best results. Why? Because those keywords are also the most competitive. There is only so much room to compete for a given set of keywords. If you are utilizing the most popular keywords and they aren’t working, consider trying less popular keywords. Try advertising with some long-tail keywords as well.
4. Take a Second Look at Your Spend
PPC advertising is fueled by the very payment model from which it takes its name. As you know, you are only billed for your ads when people click on them. So if your ads aren’t performing as expected, you’re spending plan may be misaligned with your goals.
For example, one of the automatic bidding goals offered by Google ads is conversion. Choose this as your primary goal and Google will optimize bid prices designed to increase your conversions. You are guaranteed to pay higher prices for this particular strategy.
If you’re paying the higher prices but not seeing the return, maybe you haven’t budgeted enough to make the best use of a conversion strategy. Consider increasing your budget or switching to a different strategy.
Very few PPC campaigns go off without a hitch. PPC advertising is a complex enterprise with lots of moving parts. So don’t worry if it takes you some time to figure it out. As long as you aren’t being victimized by click fraud, any other problems you’re having can be ironed out.
