As a business owner, you must know the importance of calculate cost/lead cost generation. It is a highly efficient way to generate new consumers, increase brand awareness and ultimately, increase your revenue.
Lead generation is one of the many ways of digital advertising/online advertising pricing model. There display advertising has been a steady growth in the amount of money spent by marketers on it, and this figure is expected to reach US$3.2 billion by late 2023.
Cost-per-lead (CPL) is a metric that businesses use to gauge their lead generation efficiency. It indicates how much a brand spends on its marketing efforts to attract a single lead.
However, not every lead has the potential to be a customer, and you have to qualify them to avoid wastage of time, marketing efforts, marketing team, and money.
Read ahead to see the importance of Cost per lead (CPL) and how you can calculate the amount you are willing and afford to ad spend on a customer.
It might seem more straightforward to choose a budget to ad spend on your quality leads instead of coming up with a strategy to select the best Cost per lead (CPL). While you can certainly do that, a target cost per lead (CPL) derived randomly will end up giving you unexpected results.
If you’re looking for tangible results, you don’t want to do that. It is essential to align the business goals you want to achieve with a target Cost per lead (CPL) as they differ from one to another, and a set percentage won’t be of any good. For instance, a profit-maximizing goal and doubling the annual revenue goal requires separate Cost per lead (CPL).
By being aware of your goals, you can decide how much you want to spend on them, according to their relevance and importance. It makes it easy to come up with various marketing strategies and carefully allot its budget.
The target Cost per lead (CPL) influences several marketing decisions, making it essential to choose it wisely and avoid wrong optimizations.
To calculate an optimal Cost per lead (CPL), you have to understand your businesses’ needs. Set the record straight with your goals and then proceed.
Of course, you want to target the right leads and spend money on getting beneficial outcomes, but before that, it is important to look at your marketing budget to check if the cost to acquire a customer falls in that range. To determine this cost, calculate a new customer’s average lifetime value.
Customer Lifetime Value predicts how much monetary benefit your new customer can provide your business with. While companies involving ecommerce don’t see customers returning, things get complicated if your business relies on local lead generation. Here customers can subscribe to services like Netflix or continually hire you for your services. Your CLV is based on all of these factors.
For instance, if a customer pays $19.99 every month for three years, that customer isn’t worth the same amount because that is just the money you get initially. In fact, they are actually worth $59.97, making it worthwhile to spend more than $19.99 to add a customer. Of course, you will lose some money initially, but the profits will be worth it as your relationship progresses.
Even though there are various methods to calculate the average CLV, here’s one of the easiest way to do so is:
Mean monthly revenue of a customer/churn rate = CLV
Let’s apply this lead formula to a practical example. Assume your company is a business widgets supplier with monthly delivery subscription models that other firms can also take advantage of.
In this case, use your company’s mean monthly revenue and divide that number by your monthly mean number of customers. For example, your monthly average revenue from a customer is $70 if 100 customers give $7,000 monthly.
To determine the churn rate, use the data for a specific month by subtracting the repeat customers from the whole number in the same month. Divide this value by the entire customer base of that month. For example, if you get 100 customers in a month and 90 are recurring customers, you get a churn rate of 0.1 or 10%.
Using these values, you can get the CLV with the help of the formula. For this example, the CLV is simply $700 ($70 / 0.1).
After figuring out your CLV, find out the actual profit margin. You have to calculate the cost to look after the new customer you get, for the entire time they’ll do business with you.
For instance, if the cost to take care of an existing customer’s requirements is $7 monthly for spending approximately ten months with you, it will provide fulfillment costs of $70.
Additionally, you have to consider more fixed costs of your business and divide those by the average monthly customer number. For instance, considering the same example, if rent, utilities, salaries, etc., amount to $5,000 monthly, that turns out to be $50 per customer monthly.
To calculate the mean profit per customer, a customer’s fixed and fulfillment costs can be used as in the equation below.
CLV – (Mean monthly costs of a customer / churn rate) = Profit of a customer
In this hypothetical example, the mean CLV was $700, and it costs $7/month to look after a customer for the business to proceed. For a customer, the monthly total average cost turns out to be $57. For a customer’s lifetime, this amounts to $570 ($57 / 0.1).
Subtract this value from the average CLV to get a profit of $130 ($700 – $570).
After calculating the amount, you can spend to convert a lead into a customer, work backward and figure out the cost you can bear to achieve this.
In an ideal world, we could consider the possibility of finding new customers out of all the leads, but those who have chased leads know how hard that can be. Use the following formula to calculate the amount you can spend on every new leads:
(Monthly sales closed / Monthly leads) * Profit of a customer = Maximum CPL
In the hypothetical scenario above, if you get 250 leads every month and close 50 out of those, you can spend $26 on every lead ($130 * (50 / 250)). If you spend more, you’ll lose money on each customer.
In addition, running and tracking metrics on a remarketing campaign means bounced traffic may not yet be a complete loss to you.
Even though you know your budget for a customer, it doesn’t solve the mystery of how much your target cost per Lead (CPL) should be, which ultimately comes down to your business goals.
Understand what your ultimate goal is. Is it to make tremendous amounts of money or reel in potential investors by showing you can get customers? The target cost per lead (CPL) for both cases will be different because you should be prepared to have some loss initially in the former case so you can build a solid customer base. Here, you will have a profit margin that is lower than the target CPL.
Of course, this is not a recommended business practice, but it is a clear indication of the importance of using the optimal Cost per lead (CPL) according to your goals.
Now that we have figured out how much you can and are willing to spend on your target cost-per-lead, let’s get to an essential part of this process: all the customers are not worth the exact cost.
Using the average CLV to choose a target Cost per lead (CPL) is a great approach, but what happens when you find more valuable customers to your brand? In this case, you have to assess what the right Cost per lead (CPL) will be according to the different customer types.
Let’s look at the ACME Widgets case because they sell the best widgets, and their average CLV is a whopping $24,000!
If you use the above hypothetical scenario calculations with the $24,000 mean LTV, a high acquisition cost per lead will be affordable for you.
However, it helps to know what types of buyers you have. In the case of ACME, there are three critical types of buyer personas, including Widgets Classic, Widgets Pro, and Widgets Infinity, with average LTVs of $1,750, $72,000, and $1.59 million, respectively.
These buyers with different LTVs enable you to spend differently on them. You can spend much more on Widgets Infinity leads than Widgets Classic on any day.
Not only this, your entire marketing campaigns/ad campaign varies with the different types, which you work on when you decide the optimal Cost per lead (CPL).
Compartmentalizing leads makes things simpler and enables you to spend wisely than choose some strict acquisition cost. For instance, Classic, Pro, and Infinity’s acquisition costs are $1k, $12k, and $202k, respectively.
These different buyer personas help you understand the amount needed in turning a lead into a customer. It will allow you to be more strategic in your approach towards the right Cost per lead (CPL).
For instance, an Infinity customer may require a target Cost per lead (CPL) Compaigns that is 80 times more than that of a Classic customer, but the higher cost shouldn’t budge you too much as Infinity would be a lot more profitable in the long-term.
If ACME Widgets would’ve stuck to an average figure to spend on every new lead, they probably would’ve closed most of the marketing channels and google ads that got them Infinity leads which would be detrimental to their business. Marketing channels are the most important thing!
For effective marketing campaigns that include a lead generation strategy, you have to invest time, cost-effectiveness, money, and effort to get valuable results.
Picking the right target cost-per-lead requires accurate thought and calculations so you can focus on the customers appropriately and optimize the right aspects of your paid marketing plan. This is particularly true if you’re manually doing the work and not automating your bidding on keywords in PPC. One of the most important things to recognize in this entire process is your business goals to identify the optimal Cost per lead (CPL) that your marketing campaigns/lead generation campaigns requires. Additionally, you have to consider your customer base to make the right decision.
Know the search engine optimization leads you want to focus on because not all of them are the same. Once you have this idea, it’ll be easy for you to make an informed decision rather than picking random figures and wasting your time and money!
Engage our PPC management services today and find out how we can help you dial-in your cost-per-lead!
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If you’re running paid ads to promote your web hosting services, your landing pages are the core of your funnel. You can run a killer campaign with the perfect keywords and nail your targeting, but if your landing pages aren’t optimized to convert, you’re wasting money.
Your pay-per-click (PPC) ads need to capture attention immediately or you won’t get clicks. But web hosting is a highly competitive market and your landing pages need to be top-notch to turn those clicks into paying customers. To accomplish this, each page has to prove your value in seconds, overcome objections before they’re raised, and guide visitors toward signing up.
PPC strategies for generating web hosting leads apply whether you’re running your own company or building a business as a reseller. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the critical elements that make the difference between someone who buys and someone who clicks out of curiosity and bounces.
Generating leads from PPC ads starts with understanding user intent. For example, someone who clicks an ad for “best web hosting for small business” isn’t looking for the same thing as someone searching for “cheap web hosting.” They might both end up buying the same plan, but you have to sell your services differently to each group. Each lead needs to think, “this hosting plan is for me” when reading your ads and landing page. As such, you need to alter the language to speak directly to each group’s pain points, desires, and fears.
It’s worth pursuing multiple markets, but each requires a unique strategy. Success requires segmenting your traffic by creating separate landing pages for each group and then crafting ads and offers specifically tailored to those groups based on their intent. For example, you want to run separate ads with corresponding landing pages for each of the following keyword groups:
· “Reliable small business web hosting” – these leads are small business owners looking for a web host that has decent uptime and won’t go offline for a few hours every month.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on reliability, uptime, and access to tools like email, page builders, security, and customer support.
· “WordPress hosting” – these leads aren’t tech savvy and want hosting that offers one-click WordPress installations. However, they aren’t necessarily looking for the quick installer that comes with cPanel. That’s far too complex for this group. They want a fully managed WordPress hosting account with a user interface that makes managing every WordPress installation a breeze.
To capture this group, your ad and landing page copy should focus on simple installation, easy migration, templates, automated backups, managed maintenance, and accessible support.
· “Cheap web hosting” – these leads are looking to save money and will likely sacrifice features for the right price.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on your prices, discounts, and deals first, followed by elements like reliability and features.
· “Reliable web hosting” – these leads prioritize reliability over everything else.
Your ad and landing page copy should focus on your uptime guarantee, security, accessible support, and anything else that tells leads your servers aren’t going to crash or get hacked every week.
These are just a handful of examples of what search phrases can tell you about a user’s intent. To maximize leads, it’s crucial to segment your market based on intent to reach each group with customized marketing messages.
As with any market, before you type a single word, analyze your competition to know what you’re up against. Your competitors are bidding on the same keywords, targeting the same customers, and many are throwing down some serious cash. If your landing pages aren’t top-notch, you’re not going to make it.
Here’s how to research web hosting competitors:
· Dissect their traffic sources. Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find out where they’re getting traffic. If you’re not using these platforms yet, it’s time to start.
· Copy their offers (but not specifically). Analyze their headlines, subheadings, CTAs, and packages/plans. Use this information as inspiration to build your landing pages and offers, but don’t copy anything word-for-word. Then, see what you can improve.
If your goal is to create better offers, keep in mind that hosting companies offer mid-tier plans that don’t make financial sense as part of a marketing strategy to get people to buy a more expensive plan. If you don’t use this strategy, it could result in fewer sales.
· Look for their hooks. What emotional buttons are they pushing? Security? Speed? Price? Support? Take their hooks and craft even better ones. For example, if their hook is “Hosting for $2.95/month,” take that up a notch to “Hosting that won’t crash - $2.95/month.”
· Read all their reviews. Take a deep dive into what people are saying about your competitors on sites like Reddit and Trustpilot. Negative customer reviews will tell you exactly where your competitors are failing, and those are the pain points you can solve (and advertise). For example, if a one of your competitors has an awful support ticket system, make it clear that you have superior-level support. For example, “No more ticket system nightmares – talk to a real human 24/7.”
Researching your competitors is the best way to avoid having to reinvent the wheel each time you need to build a landing page. It will give you the foundation needed to meet and exceed your competitors’ offers.
Your landing page headline is your first impression. If it doesn’t capture attention and resonate immediately, the rest of your content won’t matter. According to research from the Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of users only scan web page content and don’t read word-by-word. To capture attention, your content has to include scannable text, and that’s where your headlines shine.
When users scan web pages, they scroll while taking in headlines and subheadings in addition to bolded text and bulleted lists. But if your headings aren’t convincing, they won’t scan the rest of your content.
No matter what market you’re going for, craft your headlines to be value-and-benefit-driven. For example:
· “Lightning-fast hosting for growing businesses” is more effective than “Shared hosting plans.”
· “Get your website live in [time frame] – no tech skills needed” is more effective than “Build your website with us”
· “Affordable hosting that scales with your business” is more effective than “Business hosting plans.”
These are general guidelines – you’ll need to split test specific headlines to see what works best.
Landing pages generate more conversions when they load fast and aren’t cluttered with distractions and opportunities for people to click away from the page. Strip your landing pages down to simplicity. Remove sidebars, footers, links, and anything else that will allow users to escape from the conversion path. Most importantly, eliminate the main navigation menu to keep people on the page.
As previously discussed, most people scan content and don’t read it word-for-word, which means your landing pages need to give users something to focus on as they scroll and scan. This can be accomplished with meaningful headlines and subheadings, bolding important words, breaking up text into smaller paragraphs, using bulleted and numbered lists, and containing features and benefits inside visual comparison boxes.
One important feature of a successful landing page is that it provides limited options. If you give people too many choices they’ll struggle to make a selection. Whatever you’re offering, make it simple and limited. For example, say you have 20 different hosting plans spread out across shared hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS plans. Instead of listing all 20 plans on one page, list the three categories and link them to separate pages that detail all the relevant plans. When you create your PPC ads, run specific ads for each category of hosting rather than a generic ad for better results.
It’s not your amazing services that sell – it’s the packaging. In this case, it’s how you present your offer. Mediocre web hosting wrapped in a great offer will beat great web hosting wrapped in a boring offer every time.
Web hosting offers tend to do well with limited time offers that create a sense of urgency for the user to act now. Deals that end at midnight or offers only available to the first 50 signups can increase conversions. Just make sure you actually end those offers when claimed, and limit signups as advertised to avoid being fined by the FTC.
If you don’t know how to craft a compelling offer, look at what your competitors are offering and make sure your offer can compete. However, don’t just focus on price and disk space – that’s an old tactic that worked in the past, but today, people want more than generous resources. In fact, the average web hosting client won’t necessarily know or care about how much RAM or processing power your servers have.
Today’s web hosting clients want the following:
· A plan they can use without technical knowledge
· Managed WordPress hosting with automatic installation
· The ability to scale
· Ecommerce options
· High uptime
· Free SSL certificate
· A free domain name for at least the first year
· Site migration services
· AI-powered web building tools
· The option for custom design services
· Automated malware protection
· Automated backups
· A money-back guarantee
With so many unknown and scammy web hosts out there, social proof will go a long way in helping you generate leads. What others say about your business matters more than what you say about yourself. In fact, according to statistics published by Brightlocal, around 87% of people use Google to find reviews before making a purchase.
When people are researching your company, they’ll use customer reviews to determine whether or not you can be trusted. However, you can leverage social proof more powerfully by embedding testimonials right in your landing pages. Instead of bouncing to go look you up on Google right away, many users will read and/or watch your embedded reviews first.
If you’re not one of the top, well-known web hosting companies, you need social proof to gain momentum and trust in the market. Instead of posting images of 5-star reviews, highlight reviews from real people using a name and photo whenever possible. If you don’t have a system yet, you can start collecting video testimonials from sites like Storyprompt and embed them on your website.
Even though you’re selling web hosting services, users need to be told what to do for the next step. That’s where your CTA comes in. Your call-to-action (CTA) needs to be direct, bold, and specific to the targeted user. According to Hubspot data, aligned CTAs convert 202% better than basic ones.
Effective web hosting CTAs are action-oriented, like “Get started,” “Choose plan,” or “Claim your offer now.” For optimal conversions, create a custom action-oriented CTA for each segment you’re targeting.
Since people scroll through content scanning headlines and words here and there, it’s crucial to repeat your CTA throughout your text in a way that makes sense based on the content. For example, place a CTA at the end of each main section, like your pricing plan comparison charts, features overview, and testimonials section.
Mobile optimization doesn’t simply mean creating pages that can be viewed and interacted with on mobile. It requires a strategy for crafting pages that support how mobile users naturally read, scroll, and click. Effective mobile-friendly pages are plain, use limited or no images, don’t use sidebars, and have a sticky menu with a “buy” button so the user doesn’t need to scroll to the top of the page to make a purchase.
Friction makes users bounce fast. Eliminate any kind of on-page barrier that makes it hard or frustrating to get information or sign up for your services. For example, simplify your web forms and only ask for what you need at each stage. The first stage should ask for the basics, like name, email, and domain name. In the next step, ask for billing information. While users will eventually need to fill in all the information, it helps to break it down into stages. In fact, data published by Unbounce highlights a company that increased conversions by 120% just by reducing a form from 11 fields to four.
Another way to eliminate mental friction is to offer a free trial. In terms of web hosting, you can offer a heavy discount for the first month or a no questions asked 30-day money back guarantee.
Finally, include a FAQ section that addresses common questions and concerns transparently. If you can address objections and concerns that are at the top of people’s minds, they’ll be more likely to sign up.
If you’re ready to turn clicks into customers it’s time to hire a professional PPC company. At the end of the day, even the sharpest PPC strategy won’t deliver results if your landing pages don’t pull their weight. Web hosting is one of the most competitive industries around, and that means your pages can’t be average. They need to be fast, persuasive, and laser-focused on turning visitors into paying web hosting clients.
That’s where expert help makes the difference. At PPC.co, we specialize in building and managing high-converting PPC campaigns paired with landing pages crafted to maximize leads. Don’t let your ad budget leak away on clicks that never convert – contact us today and we’ll craft a tailored PPC strategy that maximizes every dollar.
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Launching an online course is easy once you’ve created your content. Filling your virtual classroom with motivated, paying learners is a little more challenging. Advertising strategies aren’t intuitive no matter how user-friendly a platform might be, and trying to guess at how to market your courses online can feel like you’re shouting into the void. But with a little knowledge and some expert PPC ad strategies, you can get your courses in front of people who are hungry to learn what you teach.
With precise targeting, a professional strategy, budget control, and regular tracking, a PPC ad campaign can transform your course into a thriving program. The key is knowing how to structure your ad campaigns for both clicks and hot leads that convert.
Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), which can take months to gain even a little traction, PPC provides you with immediate visibility right where your target users are hanging out. SEO is important but it’s a long-term game that should be executed alongside PPC ads for the best results. While you’re waiting, PPC generates immediate clicks and drives traffic to your website on the spot.
The best part is that when done right, PPC ads offer a high ROI compared to many other advertising methods. According to the data, businesses earn an average of $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads, making PPC a powerful resource for course providers. Here’s everything you need to know about mastering PPC to generate hot leads for your online courses.
1. Understand the learner’s journey
If you want your PPC ads to generate leads ready to buy and not just curious clicks, you need to align your ad strategy with how learners make decisions. Signing up for an online course is not an impulse purchase. It’s a journey that usually starts with curiosity and then moves to research and comparison. When successful, that journey ends with enrollment.
A one-size-fits-all ad won’t work because a student who is just browsing isn’t ready for the same pitch as someone about to hand over their credit card. Understanding the different parts of the funnel, and tailoring your ad campaigns to match each stage, is what will make your course successful. A typical buyer’s journey for learners involves the following stages:
At this stage, your potential students are still exploring broad ideas related to the courses you’re offering. They may not know exactly which course or platform is right for them, but they’re actively looking for options. You’ll need to use a certain type of keyword phrase to capture their attention.
Searches like “learn coding online,” “how to get TEFL certified,” and “language courses for beginners” will work well at this stage. PPC ads in this phase shouldn’t hard-sell enrollment, but rather, focus on positioning your course as credible and informative.
Think free guides, introductory webinars, and blog posts that answer frequently asked questions about your topic. By nurturing your leads’ interests and providing value right off the bat, you’ll have an easier time becoming a trusted brand that people keep in mind as they move deeper into the journey.
During the consideration state prospects know what they want but they’re comparing their options. They’ve narrowed down their choices and are considering factors like price, flexibility, depth, instructor quality, platform, and accreditation. Ideal search terms in this phase are related to specific things that your prospects value or want to achieve like “affordable Python bootcamp,” “online MBA with scholarships,” or “best UX design course with certification.”
Your PPC ads should also highlight unique selling points for your course like “self-paced learning,” “industry-recognized certificate,” or “job placement success.” It’s at this stage where comparison charts, testimonials, and detailed course previews are highly effective. The goal is to show your prospects why your program beats the competition.
At this point, hesitation is minimal. Prospects are ready to sign up but might need one last push. This is where urgency, social proof, and simplicity make all the difference. Ads should feature strong calls to action like “Enroll Today,” limited-time incentives like “Save 20% - Ends Sunday.” This is the perfect time to showcase real student success stories. Landing pages for ads in the decision stage should remove all friction. Avoid long forms and distracting links. Just provide a clear and simple path to enrollment.
Keep in mind that most of your ideal market will encounter your brand multiple times along their journey across different devices and platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Mapping your PPC ad campaigns to these three stages ensures you’re showing up with the right message at the right time. When done correctly, focusing on all three stages with separate messages will turn casual searchers into qualified leads ready to buy your course.
The backbone of every PPC campaign is your keyword selection. You can write the most convincing ad copy in the world, but if you’re bidding on the wrong phrases you’ll either waste your budget or attract people who have no intention of enrolling.
Your goal isn’t just to drive traffic to your site. You need to drive qualified traffic – people who are serious about learning what you teach and are ready to invest in themselves. This requires targeting a mix of high-intent keywords, longtail phrases, and negative keywords.
Broad keywords like “data science” and “coding” cast a net that’s too wide. You’ll get clicks but most will be from people who are just curious or looking for free resources. To reach people who are committed, you need to target high-intent keywords that show purchase intent. Phrases like “enroll in our data science course” and “online JavaScript certification with ongoing support” will attract users who are actively seeking instruction.
You’ll pay more for high-intent keywords but they deliver more value and higher conversion rates, and that will increase your ROI when you choose the right ones.
Longtail keywords are used to target a smaller pool of people and that’s a good thing. Since these keywords are more focused, the traffic they generate is more valuable. Instead of competing for saturated, general terms like “learn graphic design online,” you target specific phrases like “best graphic design program for working professionals with evening classes.” The people searching with this level of specificity already know what they want, which means they’re more likely to convert.
If you skip targeting longtail keywords you’re leaving money on the table. Data shows that 70% of all online searches involve longtail phrases – it’s just how people naturally search when they know what they want.
Your negative keyword list is how you’ll preserve your budget and prevent wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Without a list of words you don’t want your ads to show up for, you’ll end up paying for clicks that never convert.
Build a negative keyword list of words that indicate someone is looking for something free or irrelevant to your course. For example, words like “free,” “PDF,” “torrent,” and “Reddit” are usually used in searches when someone is looking for shortcuts and freebies. Adding these and similar words to your negative keyword list will filter out tire-kickers and boost ROI by preserving your ad budget for relevant prospects.
Once you have the right keywords that generate impressions, your ad copy has to do the work to get clicks. Your ads need to grab people right away to prevent them from scrolling and possibly clicking on another course provider’s ad. For e-learning, your ads need to inspire people. Instead of talking about your course you want to highlight what your course will do for the learner. This is accomplished with benefit-driven messaging, emotional triggers, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs).
· Benefit-driven messaging. Most course providers list features like “40 hours of video content” and “downloadable PDFs,” but these details aren’t going to capture attention at first glance. In fact, telling learners they’re going to need to sit through 40 hours of content right off the bat might be a deterrent.
Instead, your ads should highlight tangible outcomes like “land high-paying clients with our program,” or “start a new career as a web developer in just 12 weeks.” Benefits speak directly to a person’s goals and aspirations, which is far more compelling than a list of specs.
· Emotional triggers. Emotional triggers are the heart of every marketing strategy, including PPC ads. People make emotional buying decisions and buy courses because they’re chasing a dream, avoiding a fear, or seeking transformation.
Great ad copy taps into these emotions and creates a sense of urgency. For instance, “Don’t miss the enrollment deadline” plays into the fear of missing out, while “Join 10,000 successful graduates” leverages social proof. The right emotional triggers will give people a good reason to act now rather than bookmarking your page and forgetting about it.
· Clear CTAs. Irresistible ad copy includes a direct, compelling call-to-action that tells the prospect what to do next. Generic instructions don’t cut it. “Learn more,” “Click here,” and similar phrases don’t communicate urgency or value. Choose CTAs that direct prospects to sign up for your course. For example, “Start your free trial” and “Reserve your seat today” work well.
In a crowded marketplace where hundreds of course creators are competing for the same attention, clarity and emotion will generate better results. Lead with benefits and tap into people’s emotions and your ad copy will generate serious leads.
Generating clicks from your ads is only the first half of the equation. Once a prospect clicks your landing page needs to convert them to a paying customer or your ad spend goes to waste. Your landing page is like the final pitch where prospective students choose whether to enroll in your course or move on. If your landing pages create any confusion, friction, or distrust, your prospects will lean toward other course creators. On the other hand, an optimized landing page can become a conversion generating machine.
Your landing pages should be simple and clean without too much information. The page content should be specifically designed to direct people to sign up for your course. You want to eliminate navigation menus and sidebars to prevent people from clicking away from the page and getting distracted. Each landing page should have one end goal, either to get sign-ups/purchases or apply for acceptance if required. Too many options will create cognitive overload and reduce the chance of any action.
It’s crucial to include trust elements on your landing pages. When people are thinking about investing their time and money in an online course, they’re naturally going to be skeptical. This is where trust signals can help. Testimonials, instructor bios, refund guarantees, and case studies will help build your course credibility. The goal here is to reassure people that your program is legitimate and worth their investment.
Clicks are important but they’re somewhat of a vanity metric when measured on their own. The only time clicks matter is when you’re looking at your conversion rate. If you generate 100 clicks and get 40 people to enroll that’s much better than generating 1,000 clicks and only getting one person to enroll in your course.
The metrics that matter most are your conversion rate, your cost per lead (CPL), and lifetime customer value (LTV). For instance, you’ll want to track completed signups, demo requests, and enrollments rather than overall clicks.
Cost per lead is a simple measurement that can tell you how efficient your campaign is. For instance, if you’re paying $50 per lead but your average enrollment fee is $500, your margins are good. If your CPL is too close to your revenue then your course might be priced too low or you need to adjust your targeted keywords.
For e-learning, many students invest in more than one course or renew their subscription, which increases their lifetime value to your business. Tracking LTV will help you determine how much you can afford to spend acquiring each new student. For example, if your LTV average is $1,500, it makes sense to spend $200 to acquire each lead. This long-term view helps you maintain profitability and allows you to outbid your competitors who aren’t willing to spend much.
PPC ads require fine-tuning and you can’t just “set it and forget it.” What works today might underperform tomorrow or not perform at all on other platforms. Even small changes can make a huge difference in conversions and that’s why it’s important to test variations. For example, Dell is just one example of a company that saw a 300% increase in conversions from A/B testing.
By running experiments to test different elements you can identify what resonates most with your target audience and optimize your ads based on those results. The most important elements to test are your headlines, CTAs, and images.
· Testing headlines. Your ad headline is usually the first thing a prospect sees. Testing different headlines can help identify which promises resonate most. For example, “Land your dream job” might appeal to people looking for a new career, while “Get certified in 12 weeks” might hook people in a hurry. If you get more conversions from the former, your main audience is likely people looking for a new career, and you can tailor your ads to that group.
· Testing CTAs. A strong CTA can generate more clicks, but what works will depend on your audience. For example, “Get started today” might work for some courses while “Reserve your spot” works better for others. Avoid vague CTAs like “Learn more” that don’t instruct people to take action.
· Testing visuals. Images can put people off or draw them closer. Visuals are processed faster than text and are perceived in a split-second. A single image can make or break an ad. For instance, sometimes a photo of an instructor works well, but other times it’s better to use abstract graphics.
Split testing isn’t optional when you’re running PPC ads. It’s the only way to know which elements make your ads more effective.
At the end of the day, PPC is a great way to build a pipeline of motivated students who want to enroll in your courses. By aligning your campaign with the learner’s journey and optimizing your ads and landing pages for conversions, you can turn your PPC campaign into a reliable growth engine. As the e-learning market becomes more competitive, ads that hit hard are a must.
If you’re ready to stop wasting ad spend and start filling your online classrooms with qualified leads, it’s time to bring in PPC experts. At PPC.co, we specialize in turning clicks into enrollments through high-converting campaigns that deliver qualified leads for online course creators . Contact our team today and let’s build campaigns that fill your classroom.
