How to Optimize PPC Campaigns to Calculate the Right Bid

Chief marketing officers (CMOs) are spending over 72% of their total marketing budget on pure digital channels, with paid digital marketing holding a prominent share (full research available to Gartner clients).

Three ways to master keyword optimization for PPC campaigns:

• Focus on high-performing keywords: It's challenging to select the most promising keywords when you have a long list. Use the 80-20 rule: Focus on 20% of top-performing keywords that can drive 80% of your results. Consider various metrics such as impressions, clicks, cost, conversion and conversion value to determine the most lucrative keywords.
• Build out negative keyword lists: If you offer accounting software, for instance, some of your negative keywords might be "payroll" or "Excel." These phrases aren't relevant to your target audience. Create a separate list of such negative keywords to ensure people searching for those terms don't land on your site.
• Pause underperforming keywords: Just like there's no point refrigerating rotten fruits, it doesn't make sense to continue using keywords that aren't producing results. Identify underperforming keywords by measuring impressions and clicks. If they're low, it’s better to pause those keywords, as they’re costing you money but not converting customers.

Bonus tip: To outperform competitors, regularly review and refresh your keyword strategy as well as ensure the search terms remain relevant to the customer journey, suggests Gartner (full report available to clients).

Four ways to leverage geotargeting to optimize PPC campaigns:

• Single campaign using geographic bid adjustments: Identify areas where conversion rate is the highest, and increase your bids in those areas.
• Two campaigns, each targeting multiple areas: Create two different campaigns targeting similar keywords and multiple locations.
• Multiple campaigns, each targeting a single area: Run multiple campaigns, with each targeting only one region for better results.
• Multiple campaigns, each targeting multiple regions with bid adjustments: Divide all your campaigns into specific geo-segments based on data (such as users’ IP address, language or device) for optimal benefit-driven outcomes.

Bonus tip: Assign different click values to different platforms and audiences to get a higher ROI from each channel. For instance, clicks from a software reviews site might be more valuable than clicks from social media ads.

Three elements of a PPC landing page that converts highly:

• Keep the navigation simple: Embrace simplicity and make sure your landing page is easily accessible and usable. This will help visitors easily browse through your page and clearly see what you have to offer, without distracting or extraneous information.
• Have a visually appealing design: Keep the design simple and user-friendly. Focus on color schemes, grids, fonts and animations to create an eye-catching design. Also, try to get your page to load within three seconds or less; it’s a recommended practice. 
• Use clear, relevant calls-to-action (CTAs): CTAs can make or break your landing page and, ultimately, your PPC campaign. Use action-oriented, clear and relevant CTAs throughout the page to encourage visitors to click and take action.

Bonus tip: Use A/B testing to determine which variation of your landing page is catching more eyes and leading to higher conversions. With A/B testing, you can significantly optimize and improve user experience for your landing page.

Three reasons to prioritize manual bidding for PPC campaigns:

• Improves the click-through rate (CTR): You get full control over ad bidding as well as the delivery methods and frequency of your ads. By playing around with these settings, you can find what works best for your campaign and improve CTRs.
• Drives focus on keywords: You can set alerts and notifications via email or across devices if a keyword goes above or below a certain bid threshold, so you never miss an opportunity to get in front of your target audience.
• Leverages different bidding tiers: Manual bidding allows the use of multiple bidding tiers based on specific times of the day or consumer habits. This means you can set your ad bids differently during morning commute hours vs. weekends or other times.

Bonus tip: Switch to manual bidding to retain more control and adjust your bids to meet campaign goals, thus maximizing conversions and sales.

Three ways remarketing benefits PPC campaigns:

• Strengthens your brand: It allows you to deliver personalized messages directly to those who have already visited your website or product page. People become more familiar with your brand, increasing the likelihood of buying from you in the future.
• Boost conversions: It enables you to get more sales by targeting people who have already visited your site. You can use PPC remarketing to create an audience that you can market directly to later on.
• Optimizes your campaign at run time: You can easily see which ads are performing better and adjust them or create new ones based on that information.