Time and time again I review PPC campaigns for small businesses and find so much missed opportunity. Opportunities for a phone call here, a lead there a more targeted source of traffic there. And while I’m calling out SMBs in this article, the same opportunities are missed in many a medium-to-large sized business, too. While it is my job to know these things, that doesn’t mean that PPC account managers should be doomed to relive these mistakes!
- Call Extensions: Most (not all) SMBs that I’ve run across rely heavily on phone calls for lead generation or sales. Call Extensions in Google AdWords (and soon in Bing Ads!) allow you to get your phone number in front of potential customers at the point of search! Easy to set up. Easy-ish to track. This is a must-do.
- Geo-Targeting: This one should be obvious, but… well, I digress. If you service the entire US, then by all means, target the entire US. However, if you are like many SMBs, you have a very specific region you service. Set your geo-targeting appropriately to avoid wasting your already limited budgets.
- Location Extensions: In a similar vein as #2, if your business targets a specific region AND you have physical store fronts – Location Extensions are a must. These extensions use your business address to plug an ad for your business in Google or Bing Maps searches and to include a map in traditional search results on Google or Bing. Simple set up, big reward.
- Mobile Targeting: This one always seems to get confused in the mind of an SMB campaign manager. Search on mobile smartphones has come a long way. Every year seems to perpetually be the “year of mobile” – and for good reason. Mobile search traffic continues to grow exponentially. Don’t miss out. When you plug in Call and Location Extensions on top of your mobile targeting, look out! You will be unstoppable.
- Remarketing: Website visitors come, most of them go – without converting into a lead or customer. Remarketing is the vehicle to get a second chance with that visitor. Remarketing tools are so flexible you can slice and dice your previous visitors to serve laser-targeted messages and acquire low-cost, incremental growth in conversions.
- E-Commerce: Google Merchant Account? Check. PLA campaign in AdWords? Check. One ad group targeting all products? Check. Doh! Why would you do that? You have hundreds, maybe thousands of products? How can you justify lumping them all together? Take the time to analyze your product feed and mark it up with the appropriate variables. Then you can create focused ad groups that intelligently bundle your products together (or isolate top sellers), create unique promotional offers and bid to each ad group.
- Bing Ads: Yes, there are still plenty of businesses out there that STILL are not on the Bing Ads bandwagon. Find a way to incorporate Bing Ads into your strategy. Bing.com + Yahoo.com = missed opportunities for you. Bing has made it mind-numbingly easy to import your AdWords campaigns and they are going toe-to-toe on feature sets with Google (sitelink/locatin/call extensions, product ads forthcoming, etc.). As Nike says, “Just Do It.”
There are plenty more tips where that came from, so consider this the tip of the iceburg. The point is, don’t half-ass your PPC campaigns. If you can’t afford to hire a PPC pro for your team or an agency, get your hands dirty. Read the plethora of blogs and publications out there for help and use these 7 tips to open your eyes to previously missed PPC opportunities!
