The 5 Rules of Small Business Pay Per Click Advertising

[image_with_animation animation=”Fade In” image_url=”https://wp.disruptiveadvertising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/9-ToyStory.gif” delay=””] [/image_with_animation]

Congrats to our CEO Jake Baadsgaard! He recently was asked to be a regular blog contributor at Small Business Can. His boyish good looks surely landed him this opportunity. Here is a quick glimpse of his first article, look for him there on the regular!

Pay per click advertising is one of the most useful tools in the small business marketing toolbox. It allows small businesses to compete against their larger competitors on a more level playing field, and can often give immediate ROI.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Other marketing mediums such as SEO, Social Media, and Radio can take months to show results, but with PPC you get to see the fruits of your labor almost immediately. But what are some of the ground rules that small businesses should follow when it comes to PPC? Read on to find out.

1. Optimize for Mobile

Mobile search and internet browsing is beginning to eclipse desktop searching. So, you need to ensure that your site and your ads are mobile optimized. If a client visits your site via a mobile device and they don’t have a great experience, you can almost guarantee you’ll lose that customer. Likewise, you can also create ad groups that are optimized for mobile.

2. A/B Test

This is one of the most important steps in a successful PPC campaign. Small businesses can’t afford to guess what’s working and what isn’t when it comes to their marketing dollars. They need to know how every penny is performing. Therefore, they need to test and retest their ads, landing pages, and offers to their customers. Once you find a formula that works, keep trying to improve on that formula so you can end up with the most optimized results possible.

3. Landing Pages

This goes along with A/B testing, but is a critical step unto itself. Don’t send your customers to your homepage when using PPC advertising. Your customers are searching for very specific topics and they expect to see relevant material when they click on your site. So, ensure that you’re sending your customers to pages that are topical for what they searched. If you don’t have a page on your site that is suitable, then sign up for a cheap service like Unbounce and utilize their tools to make landing pages quickly and easily.

4. Many Ads for Many Keywords

Google ranks ads based on their quality score. The higher the quality score, the lower your cost per click. In fact, on the scale of 1 to 10 that Google uses, the difference between an ad with a one quality score compared to one with a ten quality score can account for an increase in cost around 600%.

To ensure that your ads are optimized, make sure that the keyword you’re targeting is included in the text of the ad. Also, don’t have too many keywords for any single ad. Break them into ad groups and get as specific as possible.

5. Make your Ads Stand Out

Adding exclamation points, question marks, or even numerals can help your ad stand out from the competition. Asking your customers questions instead of telling them what they want can also help you stand out from the crowd. The point is, be creative. If you want to gain the customer’s click and ultimately their business, you have to bring something different to the table.