Ultimately, the purpose of your campaign is to generate revenue for your company so it is important to architect a campaign that attracts quality prospects that convert well. Creating an effective ppc campaign goes far beyond the keywords you bid on and the pages you drop prospects onto. It extends to your follow up with the prospect via phone, email, or event auto responders to the ease of purchasing from your site.
PPC Effectiveness Tip #1 – Important! Track Everything
The most important element of PPC advertising is tracking. If you do not track your campaigns, you cannot determine if it was successful or define the actual impact it had on your business. For smaller companies, this may not be as much of a problem, but, for larger companies it is critical. Unless you want the overpaid marketer taking the increase in business from his full paid Sport’s Illustrated ad, you better have the numbers to back your campaign up.
The first step you want to take is to map out the path you want the customer to take and the steps he or she may take. This includes click on your ‘about us’ page, ‘bookmarking the site’ for later review, or simply exiting out of your page.
First Goal: Capture their Attention!
The first goal is to offer relevant information to your visitor. Accurate descriptions of the content matching their search term is the first step. To make sure that your page clearly recognizes their search term, create a landing page that focuses on each of the keywords that you bid on.
Second Goal: Capture their Information!
The second goal is to entice your client to perform an action. The purpose of this is to collect their information. If you can get a prospect on your mailing list, you drastically improve your probability of converting them into a customer. If they pick up the phone and call you, that is great and desirable, but make sure they are logged onto your list and find a reliable way to track calls from your campaign.
Third Goal: Follow Up!
The third goal is follow up. Only a small percentage of the people that click on your ppc ads will purchase something from you on the first visit. A larger percentage will submit their information but will take some convincing. The difference between a successful campaign and a failure is often how you follow up with those customers that give you their information. Targeted, opt in emails are gold. Research shows that most people need to be exposed to something several times before they take action and purchase it. Make it your goal to be the first one that touches them seven times. The key here is to follow-up with relevant, intriguing information. Some clients will convert after a few follow ups, some will take dozens. The important thing is to remember that they contacted you for a reason. Offer credible, relevant information and you will greatly increase your campaigns effectiveness.
Here are some tools you can use to increase effectiveness:
1. Auto Responders
2. Email Newsletters
3. Click to Chat (Online Question Answering)
Fourth Goal: Capture the Sale!
Make it easy for people to buy from you from a technological and psychological standpoint. Make it easy from a technological standpoint by requiring very few clicks to purchase, auto-filling as much information as possible, and ensuring the clients security. Make it easy from a psychological standpoint by clearly articulating your product or services features and benefits with emphasis on how it will benefit your client. If it will save them time or money, offer concrete examples.
