Developing a winning PPC keyword strategy

When it comes to PPC keyword strategy, the only right way to do it is by having a clear plan and goals.

At Door4, we believe using our Test and Learn Approach encourages to scale a business up and achieve ROAS.

Within the first six months of managing our auto-motive client’s PPC (Search and Shopping) account, we used our Test and Learn Approach to scale the business up and achieve ROAS.

Within the first six months of managing our Auto-Motive client’s PPC (Search and Shopping) account, we achieved +55% order revenue and +212% order total using our Test and Learn Approach.

This doesn’t mean religiously sticking to tactics that aren’t working – but it does mean trusting the process and the required research to justify it.

We have worked with this Auto-Motive client for the past 4 years, seeking continuous growth YoY. Within the second year, Door4 strategically merchandised the right product sets to help identify the high performing set, encouraging +188% order revenue whilst building a total of +457% in orders.

By investing the right resources in preparation, you’ll ensure better ROI (and no panicky, budget busting decisions further down the line).

In fact, our client performed incredibly rapidly over the course of the the two years, that the third year led to the creation of a sister brand and site. Our Auto-Motive client and it’s integrated performance strategy for the sister brand has lead and is still leading further continuous growth.

To learn more, take a look at our work.

PPC keyword forecasting

You’ll likely have a list of keywords that you want to target in your campaigns, based on competitor research and your own sector knowledge.

By using Google’s Keyword Planner tool, your PPC partner will be able to identify other relevant ones you may not have considered.

This is especially true of  long tail keywords, which are often less obvious but more likely to convert.

PPC specialists can also ascertain how competitive these keywords are and how much you’ll be likely to spend per click.

This cost-per-click data is vitally important, particularly for brand new campaigns or products, as it informs required budgets to reach agreed business goals.

Audience targeting

By delivering specific ads tailored to people at different stages in the buyer journey, it’s possible to generate higher quality prospects.

Previously, the majority of campaigns may have been targeted at people at the top of the funnel.

And while these audiences are larger in volume and easier to reach, they’re typically less likely to convert than those further along in their journey.

Increasingly, the trend towards audience targeting is being applied alongside extensive keyword research by PPC specialists aiming to lower CPA.

What is CPA?

CPA stands for cost-per-acquisition, simply meaning how much you spend to gain a click.

In a PPC context, it’s often referred to as cost-per-action (assuming that the action taken is to become a customer).

But seeing as they both have the same abbreviation, no need to worry too much about that now.

Your average CPA is calculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total number.

So lowering this amount will always be one of the goals of any PPC strategist, alongside wider business targets.

You do this by creating the best possible ads, as determined by Google’s quality score, which rates the standards of keywords, ads and landing pages.

There are several techniques and methods to achieve this, which your PPC partner will be able to apply as required.

Maximising PPC budgets

As well as CPA, the other cost to be very aware of is your overall budget – overspending in PPC is very easy if you’re not prepared properly.

Again, planning is key – ensure you have clearly defined goals that you’ve discussed and agreed with your PPC agency.

If the right KPI’s and your budget have been defined, it makes it far easier to track progress and report on results.

This will mean your confidence in PPC campaigns will grow in line with the ROI refinements your PPC partner makes in response to generated data.

Get started with PPC keyword strategy

Dipping a toe into PPC without investing the time and effort on comprehensive research and planning is a fast way to spend money with no ROI.

But you can avoid directionless spending by investing in the support of a PPC specialist that will work with you on measurable targets.

And with these as the basis, you’ll benefit from a detailed strategy that makes the most of your budget and restricts waste.

Door4’s proactive approach to the problem was just what we needed. They saw immediately what was holding us back regarding the technical implementation of our Google Shopping data feed.

 

Once this was fixed, we started to see very positive results across all channels and the business as a whole. The monthly reporting is thorough but also easy to understand, the Door4 team have really understood what we were trying to achieve and have helped us realise the potential we thought the site had.

Get in touch today, or if you know someone who might be interested, share this content and spread the love.