If you do a lot of Google searches (who doesn’t?), you may see ‘People Also Search For’ (PASF) when digging up information on a variety of topics. It’s something to pay attention to when doing your website’s search engine optimization or SEO.
The box that you see on search engines for People Also Search For has been around for a long time. But it became much more important for website rankings in Google after 2018.
These days, PASF as well as ‘Searches Related To’ are fantastic keyword research tool for companies wanting to find relevant keywords that consumers are using in their related searches. You and your SEO strategy team can come up with tons of content ideas that Google itself thinks are of interest in your niche.
Let’s take an up-close look at PASF today, as well as how much it has changed over time. We’ll also detail how your SEO team can get the most out of it to get more qualified traffic to your site.
Most of us don’t know about the history of People Also Search For. No one ever heard of the phrase a decade ago, but now it’s super important, as are knowledge graphs.
Google has a lot to say about PASF, so it’s wise to listen to them. One Googler said recently that it’s possible for Google to answer a question before the searcher even asks. The facts that are shown are search result of what other users are looking for in that subject.
Back in the day, the PASF box was a sort of free agent, especially for related searches to films and related topics. It wasn’t even connected to the knowledge graph. PASF was just at the bottom of the search engine results pages with related images and topics. But smart SEOs can use PASF to boost their Google ranking position.
These days, PASF is usually above Google’s related Google search field. So, it’s quite simple for consumers to see the differences that the search engine is making for the two features, although they’re very similar.
PASF keywords can provide plenty of options for various topics that are related to a Google search. But related searches can offer answers that are more specific.
To put it simply, the earlier versions of PASF provided answers by looking at the things we like in film or music. Following that logic, Google would give us answers that seem to mirror our tastes. But Searches Related just shows varying organic search results for people who asked the same thing.
This all disappeared in 2016. As it is today, the search for PASF box that was a ‘free agent’ a few years ago is back with the knowledge graph. So, it seems there are two boxes with the same functionality but aren’t called PASF.
And that is what has given us PASF as it is this year. The one we see today, a new type of PASF, has changed a lot. In the latest version, thumbnail images are taken out and every related topic is shown as an organic result. Some say the new version is a mix of PASF and Searches Related.
A lot of research has been done on PASFs and there is much to be learned by studying the data. One survey found that the PASF keywords box shows for about 60% of 15k SERPS that were watched for a week on PCs.
The Search result changes a lot when checked for mobile, though. PASFs showed up more than 85% of the time when mobile and PC were combined.
The stats show that PASF isn’t just an experiment that Google has tried for a bit and may do away with. No, the chances are that PASF keywords will continue to be used and expanded.
Another survey found that 8.8 PASF boxes for every SERP appear for one keyword. It’s also intriguing that SERPs with as many as 10 People Also Search for showed up even more often. It was also determined that most search results featured PASFs in the top 10!
It is hard to find out where one search page ends and another starts because rank clustering suggests that PASF keywords are highly related to web page 1 results.
We can’t say for sure why this is. But we do know the PASF keywords-related box for PC doesn’t show as many topics when you compare it to PASFs on mobile phones. Stats show that about 95% of PASF boxes on mobile had eight topics, while 96% of PASF boxes on PC had six topics. The others had between two and five. But the #1 isn’t seen because thepreferred search engine understands things don’t work as well when there is only one search result.
Smart SEOs can get ahead of their competitors by expanding the content on their website to answer PASFs. You can do this by writing interesting content that is related to what you sell or promote, but also answer PASFs.
Also, if you find that people are bouncing when they come to your site, take another look at PASFs for your common keywords. This suggests you should make the page more interesting and informative for these readers.
Choosing one of these to focus on isn’t needed. No need to pick and choose. Just make your website content more informative and longer so people find out more information. If you produce content that gives search results for PASF keywords and PAA, you’ll get more people coming to your site. This also will build trust for your site and brand, which are huge helps in Google’s eyes.
It is clear to us Find PASF keywords are an incredibly important part of Google search results today! If you want to gain a better search rank, your SEO experts would do well to focus on answering those questions well on your websites.
Hopefully, you have a clear idea of what to do with PASFs to ensure you get the best possible qualified traffic.
If you’re going to pour thousands of dollars into a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, you want to know that you’re getting as much return on investment (ROI) as you possibly can.
And while there are plenty of ways to optimize the ads themselves, much of the success (or failure) ultimately comes down to the landing page.
A pay-per-click (PPC) ad is incredibly powerful, but it’s also limited in the sense that it can’t “create” a conversion – it can only serve as a catalyst. In other words, the ad itself is responsible for driving targeted traffic to a destination. It’s then the landing page’s responsibility to convert that paid search traffic into an opt-in, sale, or another type of conversion.
Whether you’re building your first landing page/landing pages or you’re looking for ways to improve or Optimize landing pages you’ve already developed, there are some strategic steps you can take to enhance results and generate better ROI. Read on to discover more!
For starters, let’s get clear on what exactly a landing page conversions is and why it matters. And the best way to do this is by thinking about it through the lens of your SEM campaign.
When creating a PPC ad campaign, one of the very first requirements is to determine a high-level strategic goal. Usually, your goal will fall into one of three buckets:
The goal will determine the offer. And the offer will be presented on the landing page/landing pages as a way of hooking your target audience after they’ve clicked on your PPC ad.
While there are dozens of tips and strategies we could discuss for optimizing PPC ads to ensure they’re driving qualified traffic to your page, that’s a topic for another post. In this article, we’re assuming that you’re driving the right people to the landing page/landing page optimization. Thus the primary challenge is figuring out how to create a landing page/landing pages that presents the right offer to these people and moves them to take action on your high-level strategic goal.
In the simplest terms, your landing page optimization is the percentage of traffic that follows through on your desired action for them – whether that’s filling out an opt-in for a lead magnet, purchasing a product, or registering for a webinar.
To use clean and simple math, let’s say you drive 100 people from a PPC ad to your landing page/landing page optimization, where your goal is to have people give you their email address in exchange for a white paper that you’ve created. If 17 of these visitors fill out the opt-in form, your conversion rates are 17 per cent.
That’s obviously an oversimplified illustration, but it gives you an idea of how this number is calculated. Now the question is, what sort of average conversion rate should you be aiming for?
This is a challenging question to answer with a simple number or percentage. And that’s because every business, target audience, SEM campaign, and industry is unique. When you layer them all together, you get infinite possibilities. What’s good for one company in one industry might be a waste of resources for another business in a separate industry. There’s just no way to provide an honest benchmark without (a) giving some companies a false sense of security, and (b) discouraging other companies who are doing fine.
To underscore this point, consider two illustrations:
The reality is that both of these campaigns are successful, despite the fact that Amy has a 7 percent conversion rate and Susan has a 1 percent conversion rate. In fact, despite having a much lower rate, Susan’s ROI is significantly higher than Amy’s.
While both of these individuals would be happy to generate these results, it just goes to show that the idea of a “good” conversion rate is situational. Every business, product, and industry will have its own thresholds. It’s up to you to determine whether your conversion rate is translating into an ROI that justifies the expense and effort of the SEM campaign.
With all of that being said, we do want to give you some idea of conversion rates across industries. Here are some median values taken from an Unbounce analysis of thousands of landing pages:
It’s important to note that these are median rates – meaning they don’t account for the large volume of low-converting pages or the handful of high-converting ones. It’s also worth noting that the goal for all of these pages is targeted, even local lead generation, not direct sales. Still, the data gives you a small snapshot to show how you stack up.
Whether your landing page/landing pages have a low conversion rate or you’re already doing well, there are always improvements that can be made. So let’s dive in together and explore a few of the top tips and techniques you may be able to leverage in an effort to generate better ROI from your SEM campaign:
Want to know the truth? On average, just 20 per cent of people will continue to read past the headline on your landing page. That means four out of five people never engage with the rest of your page.
If you want to generate a better landing page/landing page optimization, it starts with getting more people to read past the headline. And you do this by writing better headlines that speak directly to visitors and motivate them to learn more.
Here are some helpful tips for better headlines:
There are world-class copywriters who have spent decades studying headline writing and still haven’t mastered it yet. So don’t assume that you’re going to craft killer headlines overnight. However, the more you learn, the better you’ll get. Start with these tips and test what works.
The average human attention span is about on part with a goldfish. If you want to engage landing pages/landing page visitors and turn them into customers, you have to grab them right away. This can be done by focusing the majority of your efforts on above-the-fold content and design.
Above-the-fold content, which is anything a visitor sees on their screen without having to scroll, is prime real estate. Avoid overcrowding, but be sure to include a clear value proposition and call-to-action (CTA).
As humans, we have a certain “herd mentality” about us. When we see other people who we deem to be like us performing certain actions, we have a natural tendency to do the same. Following the actions of the masses is a way of lowering risk and reducing decision fatigue. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we think, “If they’re doing it, it must be right/good/smart for me to do it, too.”
We’re not going to get into a philosophical discussion of whether basing your decisions on the actions of the masses is a good or bad thing. Instead, we’re just telling you that’s how the world works. And if you want to boost your landing page conversion rates/landing page optimization, you can use it to your advantage.
The best way to tap into this herd mentality is to utilize social proofs, which is basically anything that signals to a prospective customer that other people are gaining value from your products or services.
Examples of social proofs include testimonials and reviews, ratings, data and statistics, endorsements, case studies, etc. By adding these landing page elements to your landing page/landing page optimization, you establish proof and trust.
Social proofs could also mean managing your company’s reputation online–even using pay per click directly.
For best results, pepper social proof throughout your landing page. Another best practice is to include social proof right before or alongside a CTA.
Nothing kills landing page optimization/landing page conversion quite like friction. More specifically, you’re doing yourself a disservice if your opt-in forms or checkout processes contain multiple steps.
Simplifying the steps it takes to follow through on a conversion, like getting a lead magnet or buying a product, creates significant lift.
If it’s an email opt-in, only ask for the bare minimum. Name, email, and phone are the absolute maximum – though phone numbers will hurt your opt-ins rather significantly. (Only include if necessary.) If you get away with just their first name and email – or only the email address – it’s better.
When it comes to an actual transaction, one-step or two-step checkout is important. Anything requiring three or more steps to completion will lead to a massive spike in shopping cart abandonment.
The CTA is where the rubber meets the road. Every landing page should have exactly one CTA. It can be inserted multiple times throughout the landing page/page – and even worded slightly different – but there’s never more than one CTA.
Looking for a few ideas for high-converting CTA copy? Here are some options that work really well:
The key to CTA copy (and really any element of your landing page) is to split test and find out what works best. Over time, optimizing for CTA copy can take a landing page/page and turn it into a great page.
Distractions have to go. Any element that doesn’t directly add value to the user and push them closer to the point of conversion is unnecessary and must be eliminated.
A landing page is not a work of art. It’s not designed to be a piece that you place in a web design portfolio and wow people with. A landing page’s sole focus is driving increase conversions. Run everything through this filter.
Stock photos serve a purpose. They’re free, accessible, and can serve as compelling visual assets in certain areas of a marketing campaign (like blogging). However, stay far away from generic stock images on landing pages.
Consider this case study, in which a truck driving company was selling lessons online. The goal of the landing page was to get more website opt-ins. By simply changing the cover photo from a stock image of a truck driver to a photo image of a real student, they were able to increase conversions by 161 per cent. Real pictures also work well in your PPC retargeting campaigns.
There’s something about seeing a real face and a genuine image that builds trust and makes a landing page/page more relatable. When possible, look for opportunities to humanize with actual images!
Anything you can do to draw a visitor’s eye to the CTA is a good thing. And sometimes you have to be overt about it.
Directional cues, like arrows, are excellent for showing people where to look. However, you can also use more subtle cues, like a picture of a person looking to the right (when the opt-in is to the right). The human brain picks up on little details such as this.
The first version of your landing page won’t be the last. Expect it to go through multiple iterations before you hit your stride. Reach the “best” iteration faster by using different tracking tools to see what’s working on your page.
There are plenty of neat landing page optimization tools/tools available as add-ons to a landing page. Heat maps, for example, show you where people are looking and spending most of their time on a page. Scroll maps let you know how far people are scrolling down a page. Confetti reports can even show you where individual clicks are occurring.
The fear of missing out, search engine optimization or FOMO, is one of the driving factors behind why people make purchase decisions. Thus any time you can leverage scarcity in your copywriting and CTAs, you should do it.
Phrases like limited time, limited quantities, today-only, and ending soon are all effective. Countdown timers also work well, particularly for webinars, events, and sales.
As annoying as they may be, there’s one simple reason why so many marketers continue to use exit-intent popups: They work!
Exit-intent popups, which are the screen overlays that emerge when a user’s pointer leaves the screen and appears to be ready to close out the page, are great for capturing leads that would otherwise be lost. Test them out on your landing page and see what you think.
A perfectly optimized landing page can’t do anything on its own. In order to generate a positive ROI, you need traffic. More specifically, you need to drive targeted, cost-effective traffic to the page. And at PPC.co, we can help.
Through a combination of time-tested techniques and the latest industry best practices, our team of experienced PPC experts provides tailored strategies designed to help businesses across a variety of niches generate massive value from their SEM campaigns.
From search to social landing page/page, our comprehensive Google Ads PPC management services have everything you need to win. Contact us today to learn how we can help you!
Keyword research is crucial to online marketing success, because keywords still govern the way people find information online. Keywords help us accurately find the information that we are looking for among the flood of information on the Web.
As such, proper keyword research with quality keyword research software allows you to understand what set of keywords consumers are using to find what they need. It also allows you to select proper keywords for an SEO campaign based off key metrics such as search volume, competition, and seasonal demand.
But with all the research tools available out there, which one should you use?
Here’s a hint: Marketers are vying for a prime spot on Google. Doesn’t it make sense to use a keyword tool owned by Google?
Google’s own Google Ads Keyword Tool is one of the best keyword research tools available. This is largely due to the fact that most other keyword research tools pull data directly from Google’s tool via API. While 3rd party tools often do a better job of displaying Google’s data and combining that data with other data to present proprietary or unique insights, they are broken as often as Google changes its keyword tool (which, lately, has been daily).
Since most 3rd party tools draw on data from Google’s keyword tool, my experience with them has been one of unreliability. Furthermore, the proprietary data insights that are often provided by 3rd party keyword research tools are often misleading, inaccurate, or downright useless.
Add in the fact that Google’s keyword tool is free, and you have a compelling case. Let’s take a close look at this awesome keyword research tool.
In recent years, Google Adwords Keyword Tool’s interface has gone through several transformations, but the latest has resulted in a cleaner and simpler-to-use interface.
On the main interface is the word or phrase box, where you type the keywords you’re researching. Right below it are Website and Category.
Right below the main box on the interface is the Advanced Options and Filters feature, which lets you more specifically target your research to certain countries, languages, and devices from which traffic is coming.
On the left are several features that let you customize your research further by selecting the match types of the keywords you’re looking for, whether broad or exact.
For the sake of illustration, I’ll walk you through the steps on how to do research for keywords based on Exact Match, which I recommend using for SEO campaigns.
Let’s say you’re gunning for “LinkedIn Marketing”.
1. Type “LinkedIn Marketing” on the Word or phrase box.
2. You can leave out category for the keywords we’re using here, but for accuracy, I recommend you choose the most appropriate category for the keywords you’re researching.
3. Click on the Advanced Options and Filters feature.
4. On the left hand side of the page you’ll see Match Types
Now it’s time to move on to the next phase of the research – gleaning information from the results.
The Keyword Ideas section shows the main keywords, i.e. “LinkedIn Marketing” and the list of variations for the keywords, the Competition and the numbers for Local and Global Monthly Searches.
The list of Keywords column shows results for the main keywords and its variations. In the case of Exact Match, the column shows the exact set of words or phrases consumers use to learn about “LinkedIn Marketing”.
The Competition column shows how competition looks whether it’s Low, Medium or High. Aim for keywords with Low competition. Keywords with low competition will have a better chance of hitting the first page of Google’s search results.
But don’t discount keywords with Medium to High competition; you can target them for your long-term campaigns.
The Local Monthly Searches column shows the average number of searches for the keywords in a specific country or region in a typical month. Global Monthly Searches, on the other hand, shows the average number of people worldwide looking for information on “LinkedIn Marketing”.
For easy reference, you can download the results in spreadsheet format by hitting the Download button right above the Keyword Ideas section.
Combine insights from Google’s Keyword Tool with data from an SEO competition comparison tool such as my personal favorite, Market Samurai (that’s an affiliate link – thank you for clicking, if you do!). If you or your clients’ website metrics stack up to the competition, then go for it.
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is an excellent keyword research tool. While it doesn’t give you exact numbers (not that any tool can), it’ll provide you with a good idea of which keywords to use as well as which ones to avoid. It’s clean, simple, and reliable, and when combined with insights from an SEO competition analysis tool, it gets the job done efficiently and effectively.
To find out more about keyword research and how to select the right keywords for your business’ PPC or SEO campaign, contact us!
The software as a service (SaaS) field has been growing consistently for more than a decade. By the end of 2023, it’s projected to be a $195.21 billion industry.
Every year, we see a rollout of hundreds of new SaaS businesses (and innovative tools they offer). Many of those tools grow at insane rates, attracting thousands (or even millions) of users in their first few months of operation.
How do they do it?
Obviously, most SaaS companies use a combination of marketing, advertising, and sales strategies to see those kinds of results. But one of the most promising channels is pay per click (PPC) advertising, primarily via Google Ads.
How do you optimize SaaS PPC campaigns effectively? Identifying and understanding your target audience is crucial. Without proper targeting and strategic planning, many SaaS PPC campaigns fail, leading to wasted resources. By leveraging well-crafted paid ads, SaaS businesses can connect with users who are actively searching for solutions, driving conversions and achieving substantial growth.
Before we can begin optimizing a PPC campaign for a SaaS business, we need to know what “optimization” truly entails.
Optimizing a PPC campaign simply means making it more effective, but how do we do that?
We’ll cover some of the specific tactics that can help us achieve this goal in the sections that follow, but ultimately, we are working in service of the following goals:
Target more valuable people. First, we want our advertising campaign to target more valuable people. If you target the most general possible audience, you could conceivably reach 8 billion people, but the vast majority of those people won’t be interested in using your products. It’s typically much more effective to target a smaller number of people, if those people are perfectly suited to your product. Reducing our focus on poor targets and increasing our focus on good targets should improve our overall results tremendously.
Before we get too deep into PPC optimization tactics, we need to establish a baseline.
Take a moment to consider:
Additionally, if you’ve practiced PPC advertising for this business already, gather up your existing data and perform an overall assessment. Have you been hitting your targets? In which areas does your campaign underperform or seem weak? Are there specific metrics that need to be improved?
One of the most reliable ways to improve your PPC ad campaign results in the SaaS industry is to better understand your target customers. With better market research and customer knowledge, you can target more appropriate keywords, improve your messaging strategy, and eventually make your efforts more cost efficient.
The higher your quality score is, the better. Without getting into the mechanics of this dynamic, higher quality scores are associated with higher ad rankings and lower costs.
One of the best ways to improve your quality score is to increase your clickthrough rate (CTR) for individual ads. Incidentally, these strategies tend to also be effective for making a better impression with new leads and prospects.
Start with these tactics:
Many new PPC advertisers make the mistake of thinking that optimization is a one-way street – a clear and specifically directed path to one destination. Once you get to that destination, you can run the perfect ad over and over again and continue to see great results.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
If you want your PPC ad campaign to remain relevant, you need to consistently create new ads and rotate them in. No matter how effective your previous advertising has been, it’s going to decline in effectiveness if you keep spamming the same people with it repetitively.
Cycling in new advertisements is a way to keep your ads looking fresh, a way to reach new types of people, and a way to effectively experiment and learn about potential new tactics. Never let your PPC ad campaign sit untouched for too long.
If you want to improve your targeting further, consider using both negative keywords and audience exclusions. Both of these features are designed to reduce the likelihood of targeting irrelevant people.
When it comes to negative keywords, include any keywords that might interfere with your goal. For example, if you’re trying to advertise your paid software, you might include the word “free” as a negative keyword. After all, people searching for a free solution to their problem probably aren’t going to be willing to pay for yours.
Audience exclusions are very similar, but it might take some finesse to figure out which types of audience members are best to exclude.
In any marketing or advertising environment, it’s important to be aware of your top competitors, so that you can effectively plan for them and differentiate yourself from them. On the simplest level, this can help you craft more unique, compelling advertisements that differentiate your brand from the other SaaS companies on your level.
You can also use this information to target people more strategically. For example, you can target people in a different phase of the sales funnel. It’s common for SaaS businesses to target people at the bottom of the funnel, since they’re much more likely to make a purchase. But if most of your competitors are targeting these demographics, your costs are going to increase. While it might mean targeting less immediately valuable customers, you can save a lot of money and make your advertising more effective by targeting people at the higher levels of the sales funnel.
Some of your most valuable prospects are going to be people who are already familiar with your brand and interested in your product. That’s why it usually pays to increase your remarketing budget, even at the expense of the rest of your PPC advertising campaign.
If you want to make your remarketing ads even more effective, segment your audience and use your ad copy to persuade them specifically. This is your chance to alleviate fears, address potential concerns, and speak to previous behavior you’ve seen from these users.
As you get more experience in remarketing, you’ll be able to increase your conversion rates steadily.
Finally, make a commitment to experiment, measure your results, and keep improving. There’s no surefire formula for the perfect PPC advertisement, and even if there was, it would quickly be rendered obsolete by changing audience attitudes, new market dynamics like emerging competitors, or new targeting or exclusion options available to you.
To be successful as a SaaS PPC advertiser, you need to keep moving constantly. The more you learn, and the more you optimize, the better results you’ll see.
Are you trying to scale up your SaaS business with the help of PPC advertising?
Do you need help optimizing or improving the effectiveness of your existing PPC ad campaign?
PPC.co can help. From conception to execution, and from experiments to solidified tactics, we’ll help you form and follow the best possible PPC path for your business.
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