Thanksgiving is just around the corner and online marketers are scrambling to get a piece of the proverbial pie. Have you prepared to feast on your Thanksgiving Pay Per Click Campaign? The holidays can be a great way for marketers to promote their services and products through perks such as discounts especially during days when customers tend to spend the most; Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday.
However, most marketers don’t take the time to refine their PPC strategies before the holidays or think that their current strategies ought to work just as well. Do any of these apply to you? If so, this post can help you determine where you are going wrong with your PPC campaign.
What is PPC?
Making Sure that your site ranks high on Google can be a chore. You need to be familiar with a lot of concepts in order to ensure that your web presence is noticed. And that won’t be possible if there is not a lot of traffic on your website. This is where PPC or Pay Per Click campaigns can help. In a campaign such as this, you pay Google to list ads for you on its organic search listings. You need to pay the CPC (Cost Per Click) from your budget as soon as someone clicks on your ads.
A Pay Per Click campaign can be beneficial for you if you don’t know the first thing about ranking your website on Google. Here is how you can ensure that your own campaign brings you value –
Define your Goals
What is the outcome that you are looking for? Remind yourself who is it is that you are trying to attract through your PPC efforts. Paid searches don’t work if they don’t attract anyone to them. Define what your call of action is. This can serve as your goal.
Define your Audience
If you don’t know who your target audience is, how will you know who to sell to? You won’t get the same type of patronage from random visitors. Your best bet is to align your content strategy with keywords that your targeted customers might use to find your services or products.
Not only will this ensure that visitors are introduced to quality user experience, it will also improve your ROI.
For example, let’s say that your business specializes in printing business cards or other services related to corporate printing. Your aim should be to attract corporate clients to your pages. This can be a possibility if you design your PPC to lead visitors (read potential customers) to your targeted pages.
It is during times such as these where thinking in your audience’s shoes will be helpful. Think about it; if you were looking for printing services, would you bother staying on a page that didn’t seem to offer what you are looking for?
What to Avoid like the Plague
Mistakes can bring your online marketing efforts crashing down. Don’t worry; you aren’t alone. Your PPC marketing for Thanksgiving can be successful if you have a good idea of what can go wrong. Here are some common mistakes that you should look out for –
Skipping Data Analysis
Most PPC marketers are often negligent about data analysis or skip it altogether with disastrous results. In the end, they are left wondering why their online marketing efforts aren’t working as well as they thought they would.
Skimping on data analysis prevents you from making a statistical decision. As a result, you are always in danger in choosing the wrong adverts for your campaign. Analyze your Click Through Rate or CTR when you test the conversion rate for your ads.
Improper Installation of Conversion Tracking
This is one of the most common mistakes when it comes to PPC marketing. Conversion tracking is important since it lets you know how many people buy specific products, how many of them fill contact forms or used your paid advertisements to contact you. However, you can’t know such stats if your conversion tracking capabilities are not properly installed.
Failing to Bid on Branded Keywords
A PPC campaign is doomed for failure if it does not incorporate branded keywords. Remember, branded keywords have the potential to convert better than the non branded variety. They also happen to be cheap which means that they can easily be included in your Pay Per Click efforts if you happen to be on a tight budget.
Dead Links
Dead links still have the potential to deplete your PPC budget. The fact that they attract no traffic to any of your pages is worth noting. Broken links do nothing but waste your marketing budget. There is no reason why they need to exist on your pages at all. Make sure that you always check whether the links on your pages work.
Last Minute Tips for Pay Per Click
Here are some last tips that will ensure that your PPC campaign works efficiently at all times –
- Include a Privacy Policy on your pages if you are directing people to a landing page that also collects their personal information.
- Create new adverts that promote your offerings for the holidays. Your target audience will already be on edge before Thanksgiving. Creating a sense of urgency in your ads will get them to convert faster.
- Know what your position is for high ranking keywords and use them wisely. Make your bids when you can and see where you show up during certain days like the weekends. People tend to spend more during the days that precede the holidays.
- Don’t forget to acknowledge portable devices such as tablets and mobile phones into your marketing campaigns. People tend to use their portable devices more during the holiday season especially since most of them are still at work.
Make your New Year resolution early this year; promise yourself that you will smoothen out your PPC marketing for Thanksgiving. Remember, your customers are your biggest assets. However, they won’t have any value for you until they are directed towards your own pages. Keep factors such as popular keywords and conversion rates in mind.
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