PPC campaigns have been a staple of many marketing budgets over the past five years, but a lot has changed in that same time. All CMOs know changing your company’s products/services to fit the times is imperative for success. And the same should be true for your PPC marketing strategy. Below are six things I think CMOs should keep in mind when developing, implementing, and optimizing their PPC strategies.
1. Google is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
A Google only strategy can and has proven to be a profitable strategy, this is also severely capping your potential. There are tons of options out there. Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn just to name a few. Those are just some of the options put out there by the major online players. There are hundreds of additional places to test that offer all kinds of different ways to reach your target audience. They might not all work out well for you, but odds are there’s at least one you can reach into that’s not Google that will yield positive results.
2. The Landscape is Only Going to Evolve Quicker
Changes in the PPC world continue to come more and more often as each provider continues to try and yield the newest tech and new channels keep entering the race. You used to be able to simply monitor the Google AdWords blog and you’d know what to expect in the coming months. Now the timeline is closer to weeks and there are more channels to pay attention to.
3. Transparency Can Be Key to Success
The clients we form to best and longest relationships with are those that are very open with us. For lead generation clients, this means pulling back the curtain and sharing stats with us beyond the initial lead. This allows us to optimize not only to lead goals, but to customer and lifetime value goals as well. Our overall impact is greater and in doing so, we keep longer relationships. The best news, there are multiple tools and integrations out there that allow this level of sharing without needing to hand over the keys to the kingdom. Wins all around.
4. Quit Selling and Start Connecting
Shoppers are becoming increasingly savvy as the internet works its way into each and every part of our lives. They’re happy to be on their devices and input nearly anything into a search bar, but there’s a large amount of irritation when it’s obvious they’re being sold to. Craft your marketing messages as value added, organic ads in the areas shoppers are spending time. You’ll be able to reach your target audience and create a positive brand impression by not spamming them when they’re not looking for you.
5. Each Touch Point is a Conversion – Just with Different Values
With the increased power and uses of remarketing lists, just one click on your ad can place a user squarely in your sales funnel. Whether someone visited your site for ten seconds, downloaded a whitepaper, or purchased an item, each of them has value for your company. The challenge is to develop and implement strategies geared to each of these value levels and to help these users flow through your funnel.
6. Your Teams Need to Communicate and Work Together
Silos in marketing have been deemed disruptive for a while now. No surprise. One hand needs to know what the other is doing. But in today’s online marketing world with overlaps in disciplines, each team needs to share learnings and help develop strategies with the others for greatest overall success. SEO, email, content, social, paid, etc., each have their own respective strengths. Get those teams synced and working together and you’ll have the greatest shot at profitability.
What do you think are the more important things to know about PPC? Share with us in the comments!
