While exhibiting at LeadsCon in Las Vegas, I attended a workshop on leveraging paid search as an effective tool for lead generation facilitated by Dennis Coombes. I learned several valuable insights for using data-driven marketing to improve PPC campaigns, here are some highlights:
Work Backwards
Often times companies plan their PPC budget by looking at how much they are willing to pay per click or per lead. This is often arbitrary and not based on real data analysis. They may start a campaign and say, “Let’s not spend more than $5 per click, or $2,000 per month.” Smarter companies, however, begin at the end and work backward. Here is how you should plan your PPC Budget.
- Determine the value of a sale (this may be an average)
- Use data to determine how many leads it takes to get one sale
- Divide Step 1 by Step 2 (I.E. $300/6 = $50) to get the value of a lead
- Use data to determine how many clicks it takes to get a lead
- Divide the value of a lead (step 3) by step 4 to get the value of a click
By knowing the value of a click, you can now determine how much you are willing to pay for that click. For example, if your value per lead is $50 and it only takes 2 clicks to get a lead, your value per click is $25. However, if it takes 50 clicks to get one lead, your value per click is only $1. As you can see, without this information, it would be very difficult to set effective bid strategies and budgets for your PPC campaign.
Don’t Discount Display Ads
It may feel like you are constantly on google searching for things, but did you know that only 2% of total time online is spent on search engines? Search network PPC setups are popular, but search only campaigns miss out on reaching a much larger target audience. Display ads give your product or service screen time on sites where customers are spending 98% of their internet time. This is a huge opportunity to increase exposure and get customers in your funnel. By leveraging both search and display networks, you can reach more customers and increase conversion rates for your PPC campaigns.
Start PPC Remarketing
Remarketing is a valuable tool when utilized correctly, but remarketing to everyone who has viewed your site is not the best practice. To determine who to target through the use of data provided from your PPC platform, you can classify people using the following criteria:
Good targets for remarketing:
- Not Converted
- Visited > 10 pages
- Avg. Time > 5 Minutes
Poor targets for remarketing:
- Not Converted
- Visited < 10 pages
- Avg Time < 5 minutes
Conversion rates for data-driven remarketing are typically triple or higher than conversion rates for normal PPC campaigns. Neglecting this valuable tool will cost your company in both sales and missed opportunities.
These are just a few tips that I learned are valuable to use in your next PPC campaign. Remember, let the data make decisions for you. Data-driven marketing is the most effective way to increase ROI and propel your company forward. If you are just starting out with paid search, you may have to make some assumptions until actionable data is accumulated, however, as soon as you have sufficient data you should begin using it to adjust your campaign settings. For help with your PPC campaigns, contact our marketing consultants by clicking here.
