By Brittany Piper
One of the greatest challenges pay-per-click (PPC) marketers face is increasing return on investment (ROI) for a client. Years ago when I entered the PPC world all clients seemed to care about was getting impressions and clicks to their website. It didn’t matter how the user got to the site, it just matter that they did. Time passed and conversions were all the rage, evolving over time to report on different types of conversions. If you had decent skills you could rake in conversions and if you were getting those conversions at a reasonable cost, clients loved you!
Over the years competition has increased exponentially as more advertising dollars are being spent. In 2017 alone it is estimated that Google’s ad revenue was 95.4 billion dollars. Increased competition has led to rising cost-per-clicks and cost-per-conversions. However, clients have also increased expectations. It’s not enough to bring just any lead, clients not only expect affordable leads, they need to be high quality. When budgets are especially tight, the lower the funnel the lead is the better. Here are some important strategies to employ to get cost-effective high-quality leads.
Have the Right Portfolio Mix
Advertisers tend to go straight to Google Search, do not pass go, do not collect $200. While that is a great asset to have in your franchise marketing paid search arsenal, don’t discount other tools. While the volume isn’t as high, Bing Ads make up nearly 24% of the search market share. It often provides lower competition which drives lower overall costs. For some demographics. Even smaller budgets can benefit by diversifying and learning what works best in each engine and allocating accordingly.
Bid on Branded
This seems like a no-brainer, but I’ve been asked dozens of times, “Why would I bid on my own brand when I’ll get free organic clicks?” The number one reason to bid on branded terms is that competitors WILL bid on your brand! If someone is searching for your brand and a competitor ad pops up above yours, it doesn’t look great for you. These users are usually further down the sales funnel since they are ready to engage with you specifically, so you definitely don’t want to lose them to your competitor.
Leverage Long-Tail
Gone are the days of bidding on very broad terms. They tend to eat at budgets while being very upper-funnel searches. By utilizing longer-tail keywords you can narrow down your audience even further. Using broad match modifier keywords (or as I like to call them, ‘broadified’) really helps with this. For instance, the term “+home +care” generally is too broad, simply by adding an additional word “+home +care +agency” you can narrow down the sales funnel from someone looking for general information to someone looking for home care services.
Embrace the Competition
I mentioned that competitors will bid on your brand…. so why not bid on theirs?! When utilized correctly this can be a great way to find high quality leads. I’ve heard dozens of phone calls that started with someone clicked a clients’ ad thinking it was their competitor. This is a perfect opportunity to tell the prospect about the benefits of using your services.
There are many additional ways to maximize your competition. Search engine provide you endless levers to pull to all for incremental gains. These main tips are to provide the high-level strategy that drives your campaigns. It is important to note that any lead driven franchise marketing effort brings leads, not clients. Since you’ll be getting many high-quality leads now, don’t forget to nurture those leads and turn them in to long-lasting clients.
About the Author
Since graduating from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Brittany Piper has been in the digital advertising industry for 8 years. She has been with ChoiceLocal for 2 years leading the paid advertising strategy and franchise marketing. She enjoys watching superhero movies with her husband and long walks with their two dogs.
