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Samuel Edwards
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December 17, 2024
How to Adjust for Seasonality in PPC Advertising

There are a lot of factors that can affect your PPC advertising, but the most common one is seasonality. If you’re not familiar with what this means, it’s when there are certain times of the year where people buy more and other times when they don’t.

This affects how often someone clicks on an ad or visits a website during these different seasons. In this article, we’ll go over some tips for adjusting your ads to be successful in all four seasons.

What is Seasonality in PPC Advertising?

Summer Fashion Google Search Trends

Seasonality in PPC advertising is when there are certain times of the year where people buy more. Certain seasons have higher conversion rates and can be a great opportunity to get your ads noticed by potential customers.

How does Seasonality Affect my Campaigns?

There are three main effects seasonality will have on your campaign: cost per click (CPC), quality score, and conversions.

They all vary during different seasons because people are not all looking for the same things at various points in time, especially if they live somewhere that experiences four distinct seasons.

For example, let’s say that you’re selling boots. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that more people will be interested in these products in the fall and winter months. However, people buy boots all year long.

By adjusting your PPC ads based on the seasonal influx of your products, you can ensure your ads are profitable year-round.

Use Analytics to View Trends

Use Analytics to View Trends

Analytics is a crucial tool in measuring seasonality. If you’re not already using analytics to measure your campaigns, this is an excellent starting point for understanding how changes can affect traffic and conversions.

You should use Google Analytics or another third-party program that has this feature set up on your website so that it’s easy to see fluctuations during different seasons. You’ll need to go into the Conversion section of Google Ads under Acquisition > Google Ads Campaigns & Keywords > Search Funnels » All Conversions » Channel Groupings.

This will help you scout the trends between different products in various months. Following this step is the first phase of determining whether or not you need to slow down, ramp up, or pause any campaigns in different seasons.

Check the Past Performance of Campaigns

You should also be looking at the performance of your campaigns in previous seasons. This will allow you to see which types of ads are more successful during different times and if any changes need to be made for a new season.

There are many things that can help ensure success throughout all four seasons, such as adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, or even using retargeting techniques so people don’t forget where they left off with an abandoned shopping cart on your site.

Use Seasonal Ad Copy

Use Seasonal Ad Copy

The text in your ads can be a big help when adjusting for seasonality. Text is often the most important part of an ad, which means you should use seasonal copy that will work best during different seasons.

For example, if you’re selling Christmas decorations and want to advertise them as holiday gifts on social media, then it would make sense to create posts with “Now Available!” or “Cyber Monday Deals” messages.

In contrast, if someone was looking for something like furniture sale items in January (a time where people are less likely to buy), they might not find the message helpful at all because there isn’t much urgency behind it.

You can also try using messaging such as “Summer Sale!”. This subtle change will make all the difference in attracting more eyes to your ads.

Look At What Your Competitors are Doing

It’s also important to look at what your competitors are doing with their ads. You can’t have a successful campaign without knowing what is currently generating the most traffic and conversions, so it makes sense to see which of those techniques you need to implement as well in order for your business to thrive.

For example, there might be an increase in conversion rates when using coupons or discounts during certain seasons.

You could also use negative keywords that target seasonality-specific products (such as snow boots) by excluding them from campaigns where they’re more likely not going to perform well (i.e., summer months).

This way, you’ll only pay for clicks on relevant searches instead of wasting money on irrelevant ones throughout all four seasons. Your competitors may be employing these techniques, so it couldn’t hurt to spy on them and figure out for yourself.

Set an Appropriate Budget in Different Seasons

It’s also important to decide on a PPC budget for each season, which you can adjust as necessary based on metrics.

You should have an idea of what your break-even point is in order to know how much money needs to be made before ads stop being profitable. This will help give you more insight into where your marketing efforts are best allocated and if any adjustments need to be made throughout different seasons.

Depending on whether or not sales are up during certain times of the year due to seasonal influxes, this could change by adding or removing keywords from campaigns that may no longer perform well with lower traffic levels (i.e., Christmas decorations).

When it comes to managing seasonality in your paid ad campaigns, certain industries (e.g. hospitality & hotels) will have a much wider propensity than others. Adjust accordingly.

Should You Do All the Work?

One thing to keep in mind before adjusting for seasonality is whether or not you have a team of people who can help with the work.

If there are employees available, then it might be worth delegating some tasks so that they know what needs to get done and when their input will make a difference.

For this reason, it’s in your best interest to work with a reputable PPC agency to save a lot of time in doing all of this work yourself.

Contact Us Today!

Adjusting your PPC campaign for seasonality is a relatively straightforward process, but it’s best to hire a PPC agency to ensure that this work is done correctly. With that said, do you want to learn more about how we can help?

Contact us today to speak to a member of our team about configuring your PPC campaign.

Samuel Edwards
|
December 17, 2024
7 Alternative PPC Ad Networks

If you’re an experienced digital marketer, you’ve probably heard about Facebook and Google Ads. These are the two most popular PPC advertising networks on the internet, but they’re not your only options.

There are many other alternatives to consider before relying solely on these giants of online marketing. In this article, we will be discussing seven alternative PPC ad networks that can help you get more traffic to your website without paying high fees and avoiding tough competition.

Why You Should Consider Other PPC Networks Than Facebook and Google?

There are several reasons why you may want to consider other PPC networks other than Facebook and Google, which include:

  • Facebook and Google Ads are expensive.
  • They have tough competition, meaning you can’t just post ads for anything because the other companies will be bidding against you to get that same customer’s attention.
  • There may be other potential customers on various different PPC networks, which means untapped lead generation potential.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn ad platform

The LinkedIn ad platform offers a self-service solution, which starts at $0.30 per click and goes up to $25 for the right service plan.

LinkedIn ads can be effective for lead generation because they are more targeted than other PPC networks with large audiences such as Facebook or Google Ads, so you will get fewer irrelevant clicks.

You also have access to demographic information on your potential customers that these other advertising platforms do not offer.

For example, their job title is important if you’re selling business services! LinkedIn’s audience might not be huge in comparison to some of the others we’ve mentioned here but it has high conversion rates due to its targeting capabilities and personalization features like company pages where users can only see content from companies.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a fast-growing social network with an audience of over 300 million active users. It’s also the most popular mobile platform in the world!

That means it has tons of potential customers you can reach for free and easily as long as they’re on Twitter, have liked your company page, or followed you. You’ll always see more engagement from followers than people who just happen to land on your website through Facebook Ads or Google Adwords.

Ads are easy to create: you can use templates provided by Twitter that contain all the text required by law such as age restrictions for alcohol products and credit card listings; this saves time when creating these ads quickly.

3. Yahoo!

Yahoo! is the second most popular search engine on the internet, so you know it should be high up your list of considerations when choosing what PPC networks to use.

There are two types of Yahoo! Ads: text ads and image-based display ads that can include video. You won’t have any trouble locating them because they’re prominently displayed at the top and bottom of every page.

The pricing for these services starts from $0.05 per click with volume discounts available in case you want more clicks than just one or two thousand a day and will need to pay higher fees as a result; this service also allows advertisers to change bids for keywords hourly if their strategy changes often (and quickly!).

4. Bing

Bing PPC Ad Network

Bing ads have a few things going for it that other PPC networks don’t:

  • There are plans starting at $0.30 per click, which is cheaper than Google and Facebook Ads
  • They offer CPC bidding where you can set your bid to the amount of money you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad (this will adjust automatically based on competition!)
  • Bing offers mobile ads so if most of your customers come from their smartphones or tablets this should be high up in consideration! Mobile has been one of the fastest growing advertising platforms over the past year due to its increasing usage by consumers worldwide. Who knows? You may find some new followers while they scroll through their Twitter feed for hours every day.

5. YouTube

YouTube Ads are the perfect option for video marketers, influencers, or anyone who wants to share their message with a large audience.

You pay only when someone clicks on your ad and you can also use TrueView ads which charge advertisers based on how many times an ad is viewed rather than paid views.

This means that, unlike other networks where you have to spend more money to get a better spot in people’s feeds (like Facebook), YouTube has it all figured out: just make an awesome marketing video and let Google do the heavy lifting of figuring out what will work best without breaking the bank!

Video creators looking for new ways to monetize their content should consider this as well because there is no risk involved when trying these services.

6. Instagram

Instagram is the largest photo-sharing app in the world! That means you can target a huge number of potential customers without needing to do so much leg work.

It’s also great for targeting audiences since it has a variety of different features that allow users to narrow down their search by demographics, location, and interests (think “Millenials who love coffee”).

What makes Instagram really stand out from other companies though is its new ad service: sponsored posts.

These are full-fledged marketing campaigns where brands pay publishers – bloggers or influencers with large followings on social media such as YouTube channels or Facebook groups – to post an advertisement for them and share information about your product/service in exchange for free products and services.

7. Taboola

Taboola PPC Ad Network

Taboola is a recommendation engine, not an ad network. Taboola displays content in the form of widgets that are personalized to each user’s interests on publisher sites such as Yahoo! News and The Huffington Post (among others).

The service also has its own e-commerce platform where advertisers can set up product feeds for automated delivery via email or RSS feed – meaning you don’t have to post it yourself every time there’s something new available.

You’re only charged when someone clicks on your widget which means this might be the perfect option if you want to switch from Facebook Ads.

Need Help With Your PPC Campaign?

Managing your PPC campaign isn’t easy. To learn more about how we can manage your campaign’s success, contact us today to speak to a member of our team.

Samuel Edwards
|
December 17, 2024
Improve Your PPC with Conversion Funnels

If you are a marketer trying to drive traffic to your website, using PPC campaigns and online ads can be an effective way to do it. However, what if the goal of your campaign isn’t just about driving traffic?

What if you want website visitors to move through a clear conversion process and convert into qualified leads, repeat customers, or loyal advocates for your business?

If that is the case, then conversion funnels are important additions to your digital marketing and online marketing strategy! In this article, we will discuss how marketers can use conversion funnels, sales funnels, and marketing funnels to improve conversion rates, enhance the customer journey, and support long-term customer retention.

What are Conversion Funnels?

Conversion funnels are a marketing concept that consists of a series of steps that someone follows on their buyer’s journey toward a desired action. A typical conversion funnel includes multiple different stages, from the awareness stage through the interest stage, desire stage, and finally conversion. Each conversion funnel stage reflects how visitors interact with your brand, content, and landing pages based on user behavior and customer behavior. While the end goal remains constant, the path is different for each user because it depends on what they click or do while browsing your site and which content draws them in more—via organic search, paid ads, or other marketing channels.

The key to a successful, well optimized conversion funnel is presenting users with value at every funnel stage, from emails and landing pages, all the way through to social media posts, guiding prospective customers and potential customers smoothly through the customer journey map. By constantly providing people with new information or opportunities to take any action related to your business you will create trust and interest over time as well as make sure they’re getting maximum usefulness out of your marketing and sales efforts.

Why are Conversion Funnels Beneficial?

conversion funnels for your PPC strategy

There are so many different benefits to using effective conversion funnels for your PPC marketing strategy. Some of these benefits can be found below:

  • Creating a clear funnel strategy aligned with your target audience
  • Increases customer engagement with your business and channels over the customer journey
  • Improving customer experience across all stages of the conversion
  • Building trust with customer testimonials and relevant content
  • Supporting customer acquisition costs reduction by improving conversion rates
  • Increasing customer lifetime value and overall customer lifetime
  • Generating higher-quality conversion funnel leads

Using a conversion funnel also decreases the likelihood that website visitors who just want a single piece of content will bounce away from your page before converting (which is costly). This also reduces your campaign’s bounce rates on particular landing pages by increasing conversion rates by funneling people down the correct paths in order to achieve what they came here for. It also sends traffic back up the marketing chain too and refines leads until they’re ready to purchase. Through funnel optimization and conversion rate optimization, marketers can nurture interest and improve the brand’s conversion rates at multiple funnel stages.

How to Use Conversion Funnels

The first step in using a conversion funnel for your Google PPC campaign is defining its goal. To put it simply, what is the purpose of the funnel? What do you want the funnel to do? Are you trying to attract awareness stage users, capture email signups, or drive demo requests?

You need to know what you want visitors coming from ads or social media posts on Google and other channels. Do they want more information about a topic? Get an email subscription so that they get all the latest content sent to them when it’s released?

Sign up for your newsletter in order to receive weekly updates with new blog post ideas? You don’t have much time after someone clicks on one of your paid advertisements before their attention drifts elsewhere, so make sure what you offer matches up with their expectations. This clarity allows your marketing team and sales and marketing team to create targeted campaigns and targeted campaigns that align with user intent.

The next step in creating a PPC conversion funnel is figuring out what you want visitors to do when they land on your site. You might offer a series of short blog posts that explores the topic in-depth or provide free downloadable content such as an ebook, white paper, infographic, or checklists.

In order for people visiting from ads and social media posts to take a desired action on your website—whether it’s signing up for more information about a particular topic or filling out a lead form so you can start the sales process with them—you need to optimize these conversion points. Understanding how visitors interact with each page enables better conversion funnel optimization and stronger funnel analysis.

Finally, apply optimizing your conversion funnel techniques by reviewing funnel data, monitoring key metrics, and tracking key performance indicators such as:

  • Click-through rates
  • Lead quality
  • Assisted conversions
  • Overall brand’s conversion rate

This type of conversion funnel analysis ensures your marketing funnel and sales funnel are aligned and continuously improving.

What Should You Do When Your Conversion Funnel Doesn’t Work?

Fortunately, a conversion funnel is pretty one-dimensional. This means it can be easy to find issues with your funnel and repair them immediately. When conducting a funnel analysis on your conversion funnel, you should follow these essential tips:

  • Analyze the funnel carefully and see where you can make improvements.
  • You might need to move certain steps in your conversion funnel around or create new ones that lead consumers through a more streamlined process.

Often, the best way is to split up the different aspects of what they’re trying to do into separate parts for them, such as by phone number so they don’t have to fill out form information twice.

Simply get their contact info first. Then ask about specific details later on if they are interested in receiving additional information from you at some point down the line.

This will help increase conversions because it’s less work for customers while giving marketers an opportunity to promote other products or services within this one without having any overlap with each offering. This supports stronger customer satisfaction, increases conversion rates, and improves customer loyalty over time.

Will Conversion Funnels Help You Make More Money With Your PPC Campaign?

Conversion Funnels for PPC Campaign

The old way of selling was to offer as many different products and services separately as possible.

The new way is conversion funnels, which take a customer’s needs or desired customer journey into account from the very start. They’re more focused on what customers want rather than having them fill out all their information for your product first before they can see any other options you might have available. It also helps marketers make more money with PPC because it ensures that every visitor converts within the funnel – if not at one stage then another!

For example, if someone comes in looking for an apartment but doesn’t end up signing anything by clicking off after viewing a few properties, conversion funnels will show them other ads that are relevant.

A strong funnel keeps potential customers engaged across different stages, reinforcing trust and encouraging action when they’re ready. This approach boosts conversion rates, strengthens customer retention, and builds loyal customers and satisfied customers.

Overall, conversion funnels will keep leads on a flywheel until they’re finally ready to convert. This means your campaign can make a lot of money if it’s successful in attracting leads. By aligning sales efforts, marketing channels, and funnel optimization, brands can improve profitability while delivering better value.

Need Help With Improving Your PPC Campaign?

Do you want to learn more about how we can help you grow your PPC campaign? Did you know that we do white label PPC management for agencies? If so, contact us today to speak to a member of our team and receive a free proposal.

Our team specializes in PPC management that aligns marketing strategy, sales efforts, and customer journey optimization. We help brands generate qualified leads, improve customer lifetime value, and build scalable funnels that convert.

Samuel Edwards
|
December 17, 2024
How to Use Google Keyword Planner

Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, has an immense reputation among entrepreneurs, high-ranking executives, and business owners. You simply open an account, create an ad, and run it live.

The only caveat is that you’ll pay for every click your campaign generates, whether the person behind the click visits your website or place of business and converts or not. This is certainly a risk proposition, but if you execute your campaign properly, you can generate more attention and revenue for your business, much more than your ad budget.

To make matters better, Google allows advertisers to easily locate popular keywords people use to find local businesses and shop for online products. This tool is called Google Keyword Planner.

It’s been used for decades by advertisers, and while there are certainly other keyword research tools available, Google Keyword Planner is still useful. Below, you’ll learn what Google Keyword Planner is, why it’s important, and how to use the tool to achieve success with your campaign.

What is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool that’s native to Google Ads. The tool allows advertisers to perform research on search terms consumers use to find businesses.

What is Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner lists an exhaustive number of keywords that are relevant to your industry in the following categories:

  • Keyword (by relevance) — This is simply the categories of keywords or search terms you’ll encounter based on the relevance of each term to your search.
  • Monthly Searches — This is the number of searches each keyword receives. The higher the number, the more popular the keyword is.
  • Competition — This is the level of competition you’ll encounter when bidding and ranking for a keyword. Competition and search volume are usually intertwined. This makes sense because popular keywords will be heavily bidded on by your competitors, so ranking for them will be difficult and vice versa.
  • Top of Page Bid (Low-High Range) — This is the amount you can expect to pay to bid for a keyword.

As you can see, Google Keyword Planner provides a lot of insightful data that can help you choose suitable keywords to bolster your campaign. It’s an invaluable tool for advertisers to turn popular keywords into conversions.

Benefits of Using Google Keyword Planner

A lot of advertisers resort to using their own imagination when selecting keywords for their campaign. Some barely glance at Google Keyword Planner and others rely on external keyword research solutions.

If you’re here, then you’re likely to ask “why should I even give Google Keyword Planner a chance?” Here are all of the benefits of choosing to use Google Keyword Planner for your campaign:

  • Precision — By using Google Keyword Planner, you can target keywords that will deliver adequate search traffic to your ads. This will create precise ads designed to capture the attention of your target audience.
  • ROI — By investing into keywords that are balanced in search volume and competition, you can earn much more than you spend on bids. Thus, you’ll receive the possibility to earn $5 for every $1 you spend.
  • Foresight — By using Google Keyword Planner, you can gain crucial foresight into how your campaign will perform. The tool shows you exactly how much traffic your campaign can generate.
  • Money-Saver — Other keyword research tools will cost you money, especially if you plan on performing bulk research. Using Google Keyword Planner is completely free.

Using Google Keyword Planner can make or break your Google Ads campaign. The good news is that Google Keyword Planner is a very simple tool to use. Below, we’ll show you the steps for finding keywords and creating lists using the tool.

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

How to Use Google Keyword Planner

The first step of using Google Keyword Planner is knowing what type of data you want to receive. When opening the tool, you’ll be presented with four options:

  1. Search for new keywords.
  2. Multiple keyword lists.
  3. Get search volume and trends.
  4. Get click and cost performance forecasts.

If you’re new to creating a campaign, you’ll need to select the first option. Then, you’ll be able to insert a sample keyword to find other relevant ones. For example, if you’re selling men’s athletic gear, you can try using the keyword “men’s running shoes” to see which search terms people are using to find this product.

Google Keyword Planner will showcase thousands of different keyword combinations you can choose to add to your campaign. Once you add a keyword to your campaign, you’ll automatically place a bid on it.

Thus, it’s important to review the third and fourth option first to see how much search volume a keyword is bringing in and how much you expect to spend in the long run. If your campaign is already running, you can experiment with the second option to consolidate multiple keyword lists to achieve maximum exposure.

Should You Use Google Keyword Planner on Your Own?

Should You Use Google Keyword Planner on Your Own

At first, Google Keyword Planner looks like an intimidating tool. After all, it shows a lot of important data for your campaign. If you’re willing to devote the time and resources to mastering the tool, using Google Keyword Planner is a great idea.

However, if you want to instead focus on running your business and simply don’t have the bandwidth to invest in Google Ads or Google Keyword Planner. The obvious reason is that you’ll be charged an amount for every time a person clicks on your ad.

If you just run your campaign and forget about it, you’re bound to lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the process. To avoid making this costly mistake, partner with a reputable PPC agency today to explore your options.

Want to Grow your Google Ads Campaign?

Elevating your Google Ads campaign will ultimately depend on the PPC agency you hire for the job. Are your Google Ads not showing? Perhaps, you’ve had your Google Ads account suspended?

At PPC.co, we specialize in helping companies fix their broken ad spend and turn wasted opportunities into lucrative conversions.

Contact us today to speak to a member of our expert keyword planning team about receiving a free proposal for your campaign.