7 Ways to Increase PPC Conversions and Optimise Your Ads Right Now

So, you want to know how to increase PPC conversions?

Do you feel like you’re spending money on PPC advertising and not seeing much return on your investment?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

There are various ways to increase your PPC conversions, and we are here to share some simple ways you can optimise your ads to improve performance right now.

Here at Common Ground, we are passionate about PPC.

We consistently develop and manage high-converting ad strategies for our PPC clients. For instance, we quadrupled our client Veolia’s leads through PPC advertising.

Without increasing their monthly media spend, we were able to push through a 273% increase in leads generated through PPC by targeting the right kind of users, who were much more likely to engage and convert. By honing in on targeting as well as improving the quality of Veolia’s ads, we succeeded in delivering real results.

There are various ways in which you can do the same. And it doesn’t have to be that difficult – it just takes a bit of time and knowledge, which we hope to give you in this blog post!

How to increase PPC conversions right now

There are many things you can do to create high-performing ad campaigns for your business. Without going into many of the advanced PPC strategies, let’s first explore seven simple things you can do today to increase your PPC conversions.

We’ll go more into more depth about each one below, but they are:

• Write winning headlines to improve CTR
• Optimise your landing page
• Create enticing ad copy
• Use ad extensions
• Leverage remarketing for conversion rate optimisation
• Organise your PPC campaigns
• Stay on top of your keyword management

Keep reading to find out how each of these strategies can aid you when it comes to increasing your PPC conversions…

 

Write winning headlines to improve CTR

Headlines are the first thing people see when your ads appear, so getting them right is important. When it comes to writing headlines for ads, first impressions really do count!

With Google Search Ads, you can have three headlines; each headline has a 30-character limit and they are separated by a dash. With only 30 characters per headline, you will need to make sure you write something that will capture people’s attention.

So, how can you create winning headlines?

We believe in the power of testing! Test different headlines to see what works best. Then go back and review your ad performance to see which headline combinations worked best at driving high-converting traffic to your website.

You should also always consider who you are writing for (your ideal client/customer), what their needs are, and be sure to keep it short and snappy. Include keywords here, and use title case to ensure your headline stands out and is easy-to-read. Be clear and concise!

One example of a headline that stands out by keeping things simple is ‘Manage Your Workflow’ by Asana.

In this example, Asana are providing a solution to a problem frequently faced by their target audience. The headline clearly focuses on an audience pain-point regarding workflow management and hooks searchers in by positioning themselves as the solution.

This is then emphasised in the description where they refer to their tool as being the ‘easiest way to manage your projects and tasks’. The use of site link extensions also helps this ad stand out by providing additional information – we’ll talk more about these later!

You can stay ahead of the game and level-up your headline writing skills by using tools such as SEMrush to analyse competitor ad copy, including headlines, and the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to analyse your own headlines!

Optimise your landing page

When using Google ads to send people to your website, it is instrumental that your landing page is well-aligned with your ad.

You don’t want users clicking on an ad that promises 30% off shoes to end up on a landing page for full-price hats. A disconnect between your ad copy and your landing page is going to significantly impact user experience and cause a decline in conversion. Simply put, it is vital that your landing pages make sense.

Your chosen landing page should also be tailored for the audience; users who see your ads via a niched-down retargeting ad on the Google Display Network, for example, will be a more focused audience group than those who happen across your website through organic search – and your landing pages should reflect this!

For instance, if you are creating an ad campaign that targets users based on location, you can get savvy with this by creating a location-specific landing page and serving these landing pages with the relevant geographical ads.

Copy on your landing pages should also, of course, reflect the copy within the ad itself. It should be visually exciting but easy-to-read, and as well formatted as the rest of your site is. From ad to website, everything should flow easily.

Include a strong and clear call to action, too – whether that be a sign-up button or a contact form, or something else entirely. You really want to emphasise your goal here so make sure you use your call to action throughout your page – in a natural and appropriate manner, of course!

As with many aspects of digital marketing, be sure to A/B test your landing pages to see which one works best!

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Create enticing ad copy

One of the most important things with any ad is ensuring that the ad copy itself makes sense and draws your potential customers in.

Stick to the basics of PPC ad copy: Hook people in with your headlines then write two enticing descriptions at 90 characters each, making sure to include keywords and CTAs. Use this space wisely, and get your message across.

Emotive and informative language always helps users make snap decisions, which is important in terms of getting your ad to stand out (and get clicked on) in the sea of other advertisements across the internet.

Again, A/B testing is important when it comes to ad copy! So make sure you are running ad copy variations and make use of responsive search ads where you can create a maximum of 15 different headlines and 4 different description lines. Google’s AI will then manage which ad combination people see so that the ad text displayed is most closely aligned with each individual user’s needs and interests.

Great ad copy doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking.

This ad copy by Domino’s Pizza is a perfect example of when simplicity sometimes works best; ‘treat yourself with your favourite Domino’s pizza for takeaway or delivery’. This ad text uses emotive language (favourite) and provides searchers with an option of ‘takeaway or delivery’ to emphasise their flexibility and help make the buying decision easier to make.

This search ad by Domino’s Pizza also includes both a Location and Call extension to further assist the buying decision by making it easier for users to get in touch and place an order with their local store.

Use ad extensions

You should leverage the use of ad extensions to include more information in your PPC advertising – the more people are able to find out in one go, the better informed they are and the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Sitelink extensions allow for additional links to specific pages on your site, while callout extensions are a way to include additional descriptive text such as ‘next day delivery’ or ‘free shipping’. Google recommends applying at least six Sitelink extensions per campaign. Remember to also tailor your sitelink extensions to each of your ad campaigns to improve ad relevance.

The more information you can offer users, the more likely you are to increase your click-through-ad and, in turn, increase PPC conversions.

As with all of our other suggestions, be sure to monitor the performance of your ad extensions. Although ad extensions are auto-optimised, you can still review their performance by analysing which extensions are most likely to drive clicks to your site or result in conversion lifts. By doing this, you will also gain a deeper insight into your customers and what does (or doesn’t) work for them.

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Leverage retargeting for conversion rate optimisation

Remarketing and retargeting are two ways to entice customers back to your site and turn leads into conversions.

Retargeted audiences are three times more likely to click on your ad than cold audiences who haven’t interacted with your business before. So, ensuring you make the most of retargeting ad campaigns seems like a no-brainer.

When it comes to retargeting, you have a lot of flexibility about how to segment your retargeting audience. You can, for example, specifically target previous visitors by showing products they have already looked at, or by letting them know they have abandoned their online basket.

Analyse your existing customer data to identify key audience segments where conversion rate could potentially be increased through retargeting.

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Organise your PPC campaigns

Generally speaking, you want to make sure that your PPC campaigns are well-organised. Not only will it make your life easier by being able to quickly navigate your ad account, it will also make it easier for you to analyse ad performance.

Ensure that your ad account is set up so that you know how to navigate it quickly and easily. If you over-complicate things, you’re unlikely to be able to succeed in running ad campaigns that work in your favour.

At a campaign level, you want to set clear budget and bidding rules. Therefore, your Google ad campaigns should be organised based on how you want the paid advertising budget to be split.

Under each campaign, you will then create relevant ad groups. Often, these will focus on grouping ads together by keyword. You can do this by using SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) or by pairing keywords together based on their relevance to one another. This will make it easier for you to manage ongoing ads and make changes by being able to easily identify what each ad group is focused on. It will also help improve your ad quality by strengthening the key message within your ads.

Finally, on an ad level, make sure you have a variety of ads (though not too many!) so you can see which perform best. Ads should be relevant, well written, clear and concise.

Stay on top of your keyword management

When it comes to optimising your PPC campaigns, we couldn’t forget keyword research.

Keyword research is important for any ad campaign – they need to be relevant and well-performing. Get rid of any keywords that don’t perform well for you, and keep your active keywords organised in relevant ad groups as mentioned in the above point.

However, don’t just do the work once – keyword management is something you need to be consistent with as new potential keywords emerge and keyword performance can fluctuate over time.

You should also make sure you integrate negative keywords into your ad campaigns on an ongoing basis – this works to improve your ad quality by ensuring budget isn’t wasted on irrelevant or low-quality keywords.

In short, keywords are one of the most important aspects of PPC advertising!

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Final thoughts on increasing PPC conversions

There are many ways you can increase your PPC conversions – from improving your ad copy to ensuring the relevancy of landing pages. With that said, there is no one-size-fits-all solution so look at the areas that you need to work on and start there.

Campaign management and optimisation should be an ongoing process; research keywords regularly, and always strive to write better headlines with every ad you create. There are also many advanced strategies that can be undertaken to really help drive the success of your paid ads.

Here at Common Ground, we can design and manage a strategic, multi-channel approach focused around your goals. We will optimise your campaigns to ensure you’re getting the best return on your ad spend – ultimately increasing PPC conversions!