Running a startup is certainly not easy, especially when you have to make the decision of how much to invest into marketing, and what kind of marketing. Most startups will immediately turn to SEO believing that this is the only way to get to the top of search engine listings without spending a fortune, but there are other ways to get there, without spending everything you have. PPC advertising is a difficult process that can continue on for weeks or even months, and requires consistent testing and optimization to ensure that it’s performing to the best of its potential. If you’re not willing to put in this effort, you may end up simply wasting your funds. However, if you’re committed to doing it right, than PPC could just be the boost that your startup so desperately needs. PPC is also a great way to let consumers know that your company is out there, and to send them to your website in droves.
The first step in this process is learning exactly what PPC is, and what it’s used for. PPC stands for Pay Per Click, and it’s an excellent way to have your business show up in search listings. While SEO is meant to get your business there organically, with PPC you pay to have it displayed at the top of search listings when certain keywords are searched. The more searched these keywords are, the more expensive it will be to have your ad associated with them. Google provides an excellent guide on how to get started with PPC, and shows you how to bid on keywords, how to know which are the right keywords, and how to track your success to make sure that your work is paying off.
Next, you’ll start building your ad. Your ad should be relevant to your business, and should show consumers what benefits they’ll receive by clicking through to your website. When they click on the ad, they’re taken to your landing page, which should reflect these same ideas. Even though you’re ultimately looking to make a sale, your ad shouldn’t be just that. Instead, it should relate to your target audience in a way that shows them how relevant and important your business is, leading them to your landing page, which will in turn push them to complete the sale.
Using the resource provided, start identifying which keywords will work best for your industry, and whether or not they’re worth investing in. It’s important to focus on what the consumer would want, and what keywords they’re likely to be using. These keywords should related directly to your business and the products and services which you offer.
Now you may come up with a long list of keywords, all of which are equally important for you. However, if you begin to bid on all of them, you’ll find your expenses running out very quickly. The more relevant and searched a keyword, the more expensive it will be. That’s why you’ll have to pick a few that are most important to you, and leave the other ones for another campaign. To identify which will work best, you can run test campaigns. These are campaigns where you invest a very small amount into specific keywords, just to see how they perform. Once you’ve found which perform best, you can expand your campaign, invest more, and bid on your full list of successful keywords.
Once you’ve bid on keywords, you’ll have certain campaign and ad ‘templates’. Some will likely perform better than others, while some may flop completely. Just because an ad doesn’t do well immediately, does not mean that it should be pulled off. Google gives you the ability to pause ads from running, giving you the opportunity to resume them at a later point. If you opt to delete it instead, you’ll find yourself having to bid on keywords all over again, so it’s best to simply put the unsuccessful ones on hold. As you go, compile data on the success of all your ads. This will come in handy when deciding which ones to run, and which ones to pause.
Perhaps the most important of running a PPC campaign is measuring success by tracking how the campaign performs. Every single aspect of the campaign should be tracked, from the amount of clicks that you receive, how many visitors are coming to your landing page, how well your landing page is optimized, what your conversion rates are, and so on. Based on these findings you’ll be able to determine what works and what doesn’t, meaning that you’ll be able to save investments from unsuccessful campaigns. Google provides the tools for you to do this, as it’s in their best interest for your ads to perform well.
You may not see results from the moment you start running your campaign, or even for weeks after. Even if you’ve optimized everything to the best of your abilities, you can still find that your conversion rate is not increasing, or that consumers are not clicking through to your landing page. It’s important to continue running the ads and to continue testing, so that you can build rapport with your target audience. If you make them aware your business now, you may find that they’re completing sales tomorrow.
Building your startup through PPC takes time and effort. But when you do it right, you’ll be sure to see success.
Give us a call today to see how the Rush Ventures can help you!
