Richard Smith — May 16, 2017 Paid searches are tempting— both for Google and the marketers. Moreover, the tactics involved offer an expansive array of retargeting and prospecting options. At present, Google is constantly rolling out a large number of PPC products just to entice massive number of clicks from the user base. This is where decision making becomes hard as marketers need to assess the situations and prioritize tactics, accordingly.
There is no denying the fact that content is the king but selecting the best PPC tactic for the job is essential. No tactic is actually bad and the success rate readily depends on the deployment of the same.
In this post, we will be enlisting three PPC myths which are still overrated and need to be realigned after the most important and effective ones:
Looking for the Topmost Position
It should be noted that the topmost position comes for a price. While the temptation is often too hard to resist, one must not let ego trump rationality. If you are willing to shell out a lot of money to be at the first position, you need to pay out even more for combating the likes of Click Through Rate and Cost Per Clicks. While the traffic for the topmost website might also increase, the expenses can readily quadruple, in no time.
Only those with exceptional conversion rates can justify the soaring prices but then again, higher traffic doesn’t always guarantee good conversions. In the long run, websites looking to reach the pinnacle lose control over campaign budgets and even the traffic.
The only way to reach the topmost position makes sense if you— as a brand— have a distinct USP which can then be highlighted via ad extensions.
Alternative Idea
While reaching the top is slightly wishful, testing different adverts for the budget is more a rational proposition. It would be better to emphasize on select keywords instead of trying of reach the summit— driven simply by vanity.
Neglecting Brand-Specific Keywords
If the first myth concerns over expenditure, this one is for those who are looking to save way more than what’s desired. Most companies refrain from bidding on keywords which are brand-specific. Moreover, there is a hypothesis that suggests not bidding for those keywords can automatically reveal the same in an organic search.
While the hypothesis needs to be tested perfectly, there are issues which can crop up if brand-specific bidding isn’t taken into consideration. Firstly, you are prone to a massive drop in your existing position as only first four listings (paid) show up in any organic search and competitors might even pay a lot to make sure you don’t feature in that list.
Secondly, if you are outranked— the revenue decreases exponentially.
Alternative Idea
Before you close down the aspect of paid search, it is advisable to assess whether the rise in organic traffic is sufficient to compensate for the lost clicks. You must look to calculate incremental costs by running ad tests.
Casting Way Too Wide
Most brands goof up while trying to capture traffic across multiple niches. Targeting a lot of search terms can be detrimental in the long run. Moreover, budget limitations are also major constraints. While casting a wider net can be tempting enough, it needs to be backed by a lot of factors.
Covering multiple keywords or niches actually reduces the impact of one and distracts conversions. This way it all comes down to quality and not quantity. You always need to invest in keywords that are synonymous to your theme. Another factor that needs to be kept in mind is the volume of trusted impressions. This determines whether the target audience will actually assist with services and purchases.
Most importantly, if the impression volume comes out to be negligible— the traffic will automatically spread out across multiple layers, thereby stripping firms of PPC optimization. The budget, also takes a massive hit.
Alternative Idea
Target fewer keywords and avoid over expenditure. Palatable COS, CPL and other metrics need to be looked at. At the end, streamlining the budget is very important.
Bottom-Line
Look to analyze PPC strategies before putting them to use. While the mentioned ones might look necessary, it would be advisable to use them once you have already reached a pretty stable state— concerning the existing PPC campaign, traffic generation and of course conversions.
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community(35)
