How to reduce PPC campaign costs without performance degradation?
PPC campaigns are one of the most effective and beneficial ways to acquire new customers and increase brand awareness. While they bring many benefits, the cost per click can rise quickly, which can negatively impact ROI. So how do you optimise PPC campaigns to get the results you want without increasing your budget? In this article, we'll cover practical tips to help you do just that.
1. Keyword and negative keyword analysis
One of the first things you should focus on is regularly checking and optimising your keywords. Always focus on words with a high click-through rate (CTR) that are relevant to your product or service. In addition, it's essential to add negative keywords - simply put, words you don't want your ads to show for. By doing this, you can eliminate irrelevant clicks that consume budget but don't bring in any conversions.
How to choose negative keywords:
- Review your historical data and use it to identify high-click words that didn't lead to conversions.
- Use analytics tools like Google Ads to suggest negative keywords.
- Also consider potential synonyms and different words that might be confused with the right keywords but are irrelevant in your context.
2. Targeting a specific audience
Another important strategy is to target campaigns more precisely. PPC platforms offer the ability to target ads by various parameters - age, gender, interests, geolocation and many more. Therefore, make sure that your campaigns are set up to show only to the audience that has the most potential to convert.
Tips for optimising your targeting:
- Take advantage of geo-targeting if your business only operates in a certain region or area.
- Use data from analytics to better understand your target audience.
- Test and optimise targeting to interest groups and demographic segments that bring the highest conversions.
3. Improving the quality of the ad score
The quality score in Google Ads affects how much you pay per click. The higher the quality score, the lower the cost per click (CPC). If your ads have a higher quality score, they are likely to show in better positions at a lower price.
Therefore, try to focus on:
- Ad relevance - make sure your ads are appealing to potential customers and contain relevant keywords.
- Landing page optimization - with landing pages, you need to make sure that they really match what customers are looking for, are user-friendly and load quickly.
- Ad CTR - maintain a high click-through rate to ensure better ad quality.
4. A/B testing of ads
Another way to reduce costs and optimise your PPC campaigns is through A/B testing. Test different versions of text, images, call-to-action (CTA) buttons and see which combinations yield the best results. That way, you'll know what style of ad works best for your target audience.
Pay attention when A/B testing:
- Ad text - short, concise text is oftentimes more effective than long descriptions that customers don't finish until the very end.
- Calls to action - don't be afraid to experiment with different CTA buttons such as "Complete Order" or "Place Order". This will give you an idea of what works and what doesn't.
- Ad formats - if you use images or videos, test different formats and see which ones attract attention and bring the most clicks.
5. Remarketing
Remarketing is a great way to reduce the cost of PPC campaigns and increase conversions at the same time. The advantage of this type of advertising is that it allows you to reach customers who have already visited your website, expressed interest in your product or service, but have not yet converted. For this reason, remarketing advertising is usually cheaper.
How to set up remarketing effectively:
- Create different segments based on user behaviour - for example, landing page visitors vs. users who have added a product to their cart.
- Take advantage of dynamic remarketing to show users exactly the products they were interested in.
- Test different ad display frequencies - while we want ads to be seen, showing them too often can backfire and drive customers away.
6. Budget optimization and campaign planning
Last but not least, we must not forget the correct distribution of the budget according to the timetable. For example, if you know that your ads perform best on weekends, invest more of your budget on those days. This principle will avoid unnecessary spending during times when conversions are not as frequent.
Practical tips for optimising your budget:
- Again, it's a good idea to rely on historical data to see when your ads are most effective.
- Prioritise your budget for different campaigns.
- Constantly monitor ROI and adjust your budget based on campaign performance.
Conclusion
Optimising PPC campaigns is a process that requires regular attention, but with these steps you can reduce costs while maintaining or even increasing ROI. Don't be afraid to experiment with new strategies and track results - it's the only way to achieve long-term success and get the most out of every penny you invest.