Do you know what days of the week and times are best to run your Google ad’s?
Why does it matter, you ask?
Well, knowing when to post can guarantee maximum conversion rates, impressions, CPA, or other beneficial metrics.
If you have been using your PPC account for several months, identify what days of the week and ad account’s time zone offer the most profit to your business.
This is called paid ads scheduling/schedule ads or dayparting in Google Ads.
And to help you with this, you should start using the Dimensions tab (one of the best options in Google Ads).
On the other hand, it might be challenging to run your Google Ad’s account for the first time/on viewer’s time zone. You are confronted with an enormous interface of charts, settings, and tables, and figuring out where to start may be challenging to say the least.
Your central focus will be on organizing your ad groups, keywords, and ppc ad campaigns and managing the possibilities of smart ad campaigns, dynamic ad groups, and any other thing that Google provides you when you create an account.
Creating bid adjustments in an area that most people ignore. Moreover, Google does not tell you more about bid adjustments while starting your ad campaigns; however, they are precious when you want to tweak your ad campaign with higher results.
You have a few bid alternatives while you are creating your Google Ad’s campaigns. For example, you may use an automatic bidding strategy to enhance conversions or clicks, or you can set your bids manually.
Google’s automated bidding algorithms enable it to put bids on your behalf depending on what it knows will bring you the desired outcomes.
This removes several of the uncertainty from determining how and when to bid on the keywords. But this also implies you might lose control over how much you are spending on each click.
On the other hand, the manually bidding approach lets you make bids for every keyword, giving you greater flexibility and making account maintenance much more time demanding.
In addition, whatever bidding technique you select, you get the choice of increasing or decreasing your offers when specific conditions are satisfied.
This implies you may invest less on hits you believe are much less critical to the organization and extra on clicks from people you think are more valuable to your business.
As you configure the Google Ad’s bidding, then will find that you can only make a few particular bid modifications. Some are more complex than others, but they are still all Google Ad’s bid modifications.
You will also observe that every bid adjustment category has its set of conditions in which it may be used and its own set of modification options.
Google will inform you of such limits when you configure your bid changes, but you should be conscious of them at all times.
When examining the possible ranges of modifications, keep in mind that a drop of 100% will prohibit your advertising from appearing.
Selecting this option allows you to altogether opt-out of seeing adverts in that set of conditions. With that said, here are the types of bid adjustments:
You may also implement alterations depending on demographic factors such as age, household income, and gender. This is one aspect of Google Ad’s demographic targeting small business owners.
This sort of change is available in the new Google Ad’s experience in ppc campaigns and ad groups.
Bids might be reduced by 90 percent or increased by 900 percent.
Ad scheduling changes allow you to vary the ad bid and regularity based on time of day/viewer’s time zone or days of the week. To use these Google Ad’s bid modifications, you must first create your ad scheduling.
That plan is easy to generate and allows you to change the days of the week quickly, and times your ad will show. Moreover, Ad schedule/Ad scheduling modifications can be used in ppc campaigns.
Device bid changes allow you to change the regularity of your adverts depending on the devices used by the searcher, such as:
This form of modification may be used in ad groups and ppc campaigns. However, always remember that if you adjust both the movement and the ad group, Google will utilize the ad group adjustment.
Moreover, you can reduce the bid minimum to 100%, which will result in advertisements no longer being displayed on that device. Furthermore, you can raise the bid by approximately 900%.
You can change the frequency with which your ad shows depending on the viewer’s location by using location adjustments.
Geographic areas such as countries and cities can be used to define the location. Join this with location extension to provide various bids to clients who are geographically close to your business.
This is an alternative method for adjusting the Google Ad’s bidding. Rather than increasing your general bid, you can modify your bid for call ppc ads campaigns alone.
The bid revisions will affect how frequently consumers see call extensions and call-only ads.
Methods of targeting Bid modifications are a more complex option. This allows you to generate bid changes for targeting strategies such as topics and placements for display network ads.
The remarketing list of your search advertisements is one of the most complex Google Ad’s bid modifications you can use.
To apply this bid adjustment, you must first create a remarketing list, which is simple to accomplish.
You may utilize this advanced bid adjustment if you are running advertisements on YouTube or the Display Network.
It relates to the material chosen by Google to be more in-demand, with more traffic and viewer engagement, as well as more impressions each day.
On the other hand, your ad should be eligible to appear on this content. In that instance, your bid adjustment may raise your bid.
The top content bid adjustments are applied to ad groups. It applies to the Google Display Network of websites and applications, as well as YouTube.
Adjustments cannot be used to lower the bid. However, you can boost it by up to 500%.
Below are the steps that will help you to set your bid modifications:
Choose the campaign/ad campaigns you want to make bid modifications for, then tap the ad scheduling option appearing on the left side. If no bid modifications are configured, it should appear like the image shown below.
After you have decided on your time ranges, hit the “edit ad schedule” option and fill in the blanks.
Remember that Google has recently altered the settings, and you only ever have six-time frames in a single day.
Before you save your new ad schedule, it should appear like the image as shown below. Save the file.
Create your test reporting plan after you have saved this. This test is best measured by looking at the findings week after week and reporting on the desired parameters.
Then, after 1 or 2 months, you can gather the findings and decide whether or not to continue with the time of day bid strategy.
Following are the reasons why any digital marketers uses Google Ad’s bid adjustments:
Bid modifications are also a quick and easy approach to test different campaigns.
You might, for example, see how much one of your existing campaigns might work as “mobile-only” by boosting the bid on smartphones and reducing the bid on other gadgets.
If anything goes well, you may want to explore making it a distinct campaign. On the other hand, delete your bid change to restore normalcy if things do not go as planned.
You may optimize your targeting by modifying who you ad spend most of your ad money on using bid modifications.
For instance, if you understand you are just more inclined to make deals at a specific time of day, you might boost the bid adjustment at that period.
You should be able to use your budget quite effectively if you improve your targeting. As a result, the ROI should be higher.
After you understand Google Ad’s bid modifications better, look at certain Google Ads bidding tactics and recommendations:
When creating your Google Ad’s bidding tactics, make use of real-world data. Taking the attempt to know how you operate across different sectors is part of this.
Keep an eye out for differences in locations, Target audiences/potential customers, online shoppers, location, time, and device. Try not to be hurried when reviewing the facts.
Make sure that you have waited long enough to allow for conversion delays. Alternatively, you may have to wait sometime for plenty of data to give meaningful insights.
As you plan your bid modifications and entire bidding strategy, consider your goals to achieve in mind. Your objectives will decide which ads and campaigns receive higher bids and which receive lower bids.
Allowing Smart Bidding to handle bid modifications for you is the most convenient option. These tactics will alter your bids automatically, depending on several parameters.
For example, target CPA and Target ROAS optimize for location, time, device, and target audience or online shoppers/potential customers for each ad auction.
A bid simulator is available in Google Ads. Take the initiative to use this to assist you in choosing an appropriate beginning place for the bids.
While human bidding has advantages and disadvantages, thus do automated Smart Bidding systems. They are beneficial for individuals who must manage many campaigns. It avoids wasting ad spend time.
The caution here is that you always wait until you have sufficient google ads data before using automated bidding. Therefore, to gather the data you require, experts usually recommend beginning by manual bidding.
You may try moving to automated bidding when you have a good quantity of data and have experienced some early success.
Some experts believe that 30 conversions each month in any ad campaigns is a good starting point. However, when you get to this level, you must seriously consider adopting an automated technique.
By using manual bidding in Google Adwords, you may avoid accidentally coming too near to or exceeding your budget.
Although Google Ads allows you to select your budget, the automatic bidding approach may make bids that are higher or lower than you wish. Manual bidding is the way to go if you want total control.
To understand better when to utilize automated bidding generally, you should also be conversant with specific tactics.
For instance, the Target CPA Smart Bidding technique is excellent for increasing conversions. Nevertheless, to collect adequate data, you need gradually transition to this method over time.
Another example is the improved CPC approach, which is excellent for increasing conversion value and conversions.
In addition, it is one of the most cost-effective solutions since it blends Smart Bidding alongside manual bidding.
Even if you use Smart Bidding to automate the whole process, you need to set up a system to handle your bids.
First, Google Ads recommends generating essential bids that will allow you to accomplish your overall objectives.
After that, use bid modifications to account for campaign performance variances between segments such as device type or location.
Any overlap with bid modifications should also be considered in your plan. Keep in mind how Google Ads handles overlapping bid modifications for the time of day, location, and target audience/online shoppers.
When configuring the Google Ads bidding, be sure to distribute your money among many tactics.
This is a great safety net since it assures that you do not wasting ad spend/waste your overall budget if a bidding strategy or ad campaigns fails to yield results.
There are a few things you can do to increase the efficiency of the bid changes. First, begin by attempting to adhere to campaign-level alterations.
Always make group-level changes if the performance of campaigns varies significantly among them. However, it is highly efficient and creates changes based on more significant amounts of data.
Campaigns, after all, will have more data than commercials since they are more significant groupings.
Another effective method is to test for merging your campaigns. However, remember that you may utilize segments to perfect your bid modifications even if you combine campaigns.
Even though you pick the best bid changes and bidding method, you still need the correct keywords to be successful.
So opt for keywords that have a cheap ad costs per click and a higher conversion data volume. That would be a nice balance for most businesses between garnering enough clicks and staying within their budget.
Search for long-tail keywords having precise matches as well. Again, there is plenty of purpose behind such keywords, and they tend to give a significant profit on ad investment.
However, they are much less competitive since they are more particular.
Remember to explore negative keywords in conjunction with your primary keywords. It allows you to avoid spending money and time attracting queries that are unable to convert.
Keep in mind that the primary objective of your Google Adwords bidding is to acquire clicks that turn into conversions.
Therefore, take the time to adjust your landing page and ad copy to maximize conversion rates. They should accurately express your service or product as well as what distinguishes you.
In the headers, they must also utilize identical terms, ideally the exact phrasing. Again, this will significantly lower your bounce rate.
While being at the top of Google Ads will earn you more hits, it is not always the greatest option for your Ad Costs per click and ad budget.
In several circumstances, the second place will receive nearly as many hits as first. This seems to be the case even though the offer for the top position maybe 2 to 3 times.
Although you may lose some clicks by going for the second slot rather than the first, you will also have a cheaper CPC and will still receive sufficient returns to justify your efforts.
Being ranked second might also improve your conversion rates and bounce rate. But, again, this is caused by human behavior and the idea that people tap on every first link they see without even checking if it is appropriate.
Whether they are peering at the second or third place, they will most likely require a few moments to determine its significance.
Consequently, you will have a higher response rate and ad spend less money on clicks that do not convert.
Google Ads bid adjustments make it simple to tailor your bids to particular visitors depending on characteristics such as demographics, location, device, retargeting, scheduling, and others.
This will allow you to make better use of your budget. Moreover, It also cuts down on time you should ad spend generating distinct ads and building up different budgets.
It becomes a natural component of Google Ads bidding after you get used to putting up bid modifications.
For the best results, incorporate the changes with additional bidding techniques and advice.
If you need help with your dayparting strategy, contact us about hiring our PPC management services for expert management of your Google Ads campaigns.
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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.
