Top tips for improving your PPC campaign performance

Search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) are the staples of most brands’ digital marketing efforts. It’s long been acknowledged that they complement each other; while SEO optimisation is a long game, PPC can deliver quicker results that support it. But it’s easy to focus on the SEO and leave the PPC to run without improving it.

If you’ve fallen into that trap, it’s time to take another look at your campaigns and improve their performance. Here’s how.

Cover the basics

A simple audit will tell you a lot about your campaigns. Look at which ad content is performing well and ditch those that aren’t. Look at the results from different locations and times of day, and tweak the targeting if necessary for optimal results. You’ll also want to make sure your ad extensions are still relevant. Checking these simple things on a regular basis can make all the difference to the success of your campaigns.

Beware the Broad Match Modifier (BMM)

If your campaigns are using broad match modifiers (e.g. +automotive +dealer), you may not be aware that this match type doesn’t work on many search partners. That means it’s defaulting to a standard broad match and you could be spending a lot of money on irrelevant traffic. Consider saving your BMM campaigns for Google Search only and enabling search partners only on campaigns with exact or phrase match types.

Try reducing bids

It seems counter-intuitive but reducing bids in certain areas could help you conserve budget and show your campaigns for more time during the day. For example, if you’re paying over the odds for a branded keyword that is already in position one, reduce the bid slightly over a period of time – you’ll likely maintain the position but spend less on it.

Similarly, if you have an ad in position 2 that’s losing impressions due to a budget cap, you can reduce the bids slightly to see your ad show for more hours each day. You may drop to position three or four, but the increased exposure could lead to more clicks overall.

Scrap your poor performers

Using audience, time, location and device modifiers is a good way to lower bids without losing out on clicks. Look at which segments aren’t performing (perhaps clicks are low between 10-11am, or desktop ads don’t perform well at 8-9am) and pause them so that only your best performers run at optimum times and on the optimum device. By limiting wasted budget, you’ll have more to plug in at your successful times.

Change your Google Ads attribution model

The default attribution model in Google Ads is last-click, meaning the conversion is attributed to whichever keyword was last clicked, even if it took four or five clicks for the consumer to get to the point of purchase. It can be easy, then, to discredit upper-funnel or non-branded keywords and stop running them. You can change your attribution modelling to split credit for conversions across clicks, thereby overcoming this bias.

If you’re looking for effective PPC to support your SEO packages, contact Digital Carrera today. We offer a selection of PPC packages that complement website SEO and can deliver effective campaigns at an affordable price.