The days when business heads such as online entrepreneurs, small business owners, and even medical clinics simply threw pay-per-click (PPC) ads onto Google, Yahoo!, and Bing are long over. Nowadays a lot more work has to go into launching a PPC ad campaign.
Keyword research, knowledge about the target audience, and their online search habits are just some of the things a business owner needs to understanding before undertaking a PPC campaign.
Below are some of the ways you need to handle PPC campaigns if you want to remain relevant. We’ll introduce you to some of the ways that PPC marketing has changed in the present-day online market.
Negative keyword strategy
These days business owners no longer just think about the keywords that should dominate. They also have to think about the keywords they don’t want to show for.
This is called negative keyword strategy. For example, if a cosmetic surgeon is thinking about a negative keyword strategy, he or she might want to consider phrases such as “heart surgery,” “cholesterol,” or other procedures that a plastic surgeon does not perform.
If an online searcher clicks for a term that the plastic surgeon included in the negative keyword strategy, the surgeon’s website won’t show up in search results.
Testing, one, two, three. . . .
Business owners of all stripes need to test the effectiveness of their PPC marketing campaign. According to Australia’s Business Review Weekly, you’ll want to examine your PPC’s effectiveness as often as possible.
They say that looking at different varieties of ad combinations, keyword phrases, and groups should assist you in the decision-making process. You won’t want to skip this process because there’s a good chance your competitors will be doing it.
PPC marketing and YouTube videos
A new trend in PPC marketing is combining YouTube videos with pay-per-click ads. On the business2community website, there’s a discussion of how many companies are actually placing their PPC ads over YouTube videos.
The popularity of this tactic stems from an online searcher’s ability to click on the ad as opposed to searching manually for the website through a search engine.
Not coming home
According to Entrepreneur magazine, it’s not enough for a business owner to have PPC ads go to the company’s website home page. For example, if a cosmetic surgeon has PPC ads for rhinoplasties, the ads should direct to a page where this procedure is discussed.
When a business owner has the PPC ad go to the business’s homepage, he or she runs the risk of the searcher wandering elsewhere. Since online searchers want what they want fairly quickly, it’s up to the business owners to give it to them.
PPC marketing has gotten steadily more sophisticated in recent years. Luckily, many savvy business owners have caught on to PPC trends. As a result, many are experiencing a higher return on investment (ROI).
As a swiftly evolving practice, PPC marketing is a business strategy that entrepreneurs need to learn if they want their online presence to be taken seriously.
