Freshen Up Your Website’s Content for Optimal PPC Results

Optimal PPC results don’t just come from creating great ads. You also need to create engaging content that will give the users who click your ads a reason to stick around on your site.

By aligning your content marketing strategy with your PPC strategy, you can freshen the content on your website while keeping your ads in mind.

1. Redesign Your Landing Pages

Before users interact with any other content on your site, they may arrive at a landing page. When this is the case, your landing pages are the most important pages of all for your PPC strategy. If visitors don’t like what they see, they will leave—even if you have highly-engaging content elsewhere on your website.

You need to design your landing pages to match your ads. It’s no good having a single landing page for all your ads, as each ad targets a different set of users.

A good way to approach design is to think about what stage in the buyer’s journey the ad relates to. For instance, if users are at the awareness stage, the landing page needs to introduce a problem or necessity.

However, if users are at the consideration stage, you should provide information that will help users assess their options. Finally, for users at the decision stage, you need to provide that final push to encourage them to complete a purchase.

A few elements to consider adding to your landing pages include testimonials, forms to download premium content, and links to relevant pages of content elsewhere on your site.

2. Create Content for Different Search Intents

Ads always target a particular search intent. There are three types of intent:

• Go—The user is looking for your brand or a specific product or service and already knows who you are and what you offer.
• Know—The user wants an answer to a question or is seeking information.
• Do—The user is ready to purchase a type of product or service but may not have decided on your brand.

Keep search intent in mind when deciding what type of content to present to users. You may need to create new content or you may be able to return to existing pieces and tweak them to better suit users’ needs.

3. Focus on User Experience (UX)

Think about how users are accessing content. If your ads target mobile users, it is extra important that the content they see following the ad is mobile friendly. This means that pages that are fast to load, content that fits the small screen size and no annoying elements to ruin the experience.

Look through all other pieces of content that users may access when coming from an ad. Assess if the content is user-friendly. Beyond providing focusing on mobile web design, make sure that your content builds trust and is valuable for your audience. It should be clear that you created the content for your audience and not for a search engine.

4. Highlight Your Top Offerings

If you have a top-performing product or service, you may want to tell more people about it with an ad. Freshen up the product page the ad leads to. You may like to upload additional pictures or give great reviews about the offering a prominent place on the page.

5. Update Your Most Important Web Pages

Many PPC ads drive users who are unfamiliar with your brand to your site. There’s a good chance that these users will want to know more about who you are before choosing your brand. They’ll look for this information in places like your homepage and about page.

Working on your PPC strategy could be a good time to revisit those pages. Ask yourself if they effectively tell your story. They need to go beyond explaining what you do—express how you are unique and what sets you apart from your competitors.

6. Don’t Just Stick to Written Content

Written posts are all well and good, but you also need to include visual content in your PPC strategy. Users love visual content, particularly videos. In fact, posts with videos attract three times more users than text-only posts.

Find creative ways to use videos. If users are clicking on an ad to check out a particular product, you may like to show them how your offering works. For content further up the funnel, a presentation about the benefits of your offering could be better.

7. Analyze Keyword Data to Create More Great Content

As you run your PPC ads, you’ll collect a large amount of data about keyword performance. Find out what keywords bring the most qualified traffic. Use this information to determine what kind of content your audience wants and lead those who click on your ads to relevant pieces.

8. Revisit Poorly-Performing Content

Monitor customer pathways on your website to see where visitors tend to drop off. They may bounce on the page they arrive at from the ad or it could be a few steps later.

If the same pieces of content are causing users to leave your site time and again, revisit these pages. Experiment with ideas as to how you can make improvements to keep users on your site for longer.

Conclusion

Users crave valuable, actionable information, but they may be unaware that you are producing content that meets their needs. By promoting interesting content through PPC ads, you enhance your visibility.

At the same time, the strategy improves the effectiveness of your ads. This is particularly useful for new sites that don’t have much authority (yet). User interactions with your website will show Google that you are producing quality content that users want, which will lead to better organic rankings in the future.

How do you combine content and PPC ads to maximize your results? Leave your thoughts in the comments!