Tips for Successfully Hiring a PPC Service for Your Small Business

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a marketing method where costs are unavoidable. Ad spending may be off-putting, but you can cut costs by handling the work yourself. Hiring a PPC agency is another cost-effective approach to such a complex undertaking.

This guide covers the following tips for successfully navigating the complex but rewarding world of PPC ads for your business:

1. Find the Best Ad Platform
2. Choose the Right PPC Tools
3. Choose Keywords Carefully
4. Set Up Testing for Your Ads
5. Manage Ad Bids and Budget
6. Track Your Results Carefully
7. Outsource to a PPC Agency

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

1. Find the Best Ad Platform

Ads are an incredibly flexible form of marketing, especially online. That is why choosing the right platform for your social ad strategy is essential. Each platform caters to a different demographic and works best with a different type of ad.

For example, Instagram is the go-to social media app for young adults. As a photo-sharing app, it is an excellent place for video, display, and shopping ads. The key takeaway here is that your platform should match your business needs and goals.

2. Choose the Right PPC Tools

One advantage of a PPC agency is that it has the tools to get the job done. With the right tools, you can also generate excellent results for yourself.

Before looking for them, you must know what tools you need.

• Ad Platform: You have plenty of options when it comes to ad platforms—search engines, social media, and even independent ones. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, so make sure you find the best fit for your goals.
• Keyword Tool: When you match your customers’ keywords, you give yourself a better chance to catch their attention. Use free tools to learn crucial data, such as keyword volume, difficulty, and cost-per-click (CPC).
• Customer Relationship Manager (CRM): Whether or not your ads convert leads into customers, you need to store and track the information they give you. Use a CRM to keep email addresses and other details, as well as mark leads for remarketing.
• Bidding Tool: PPC works through bidding on keywords. Use automated tools to ensure your bids are cost-efficient to avoid unnecessary spending and to invest more in ads that have good return on investment (ROI) and to reduce spending on ones that do not.
• Remarketing Tool: Ads rarely work the first time you display them. PPC remarketing encourages visitors to reconsider by presenting opportunities for further interaction. Ad platforms have built-in tools for this, though third-party ones are also available.

3. Choose Keywords Carefully

When using a keyword tool, you see three statistics next to your chosen keyword:

• Search Volume: This is an important stat in keyword research, but to what extent depends on your goals. For example, a low search volume means less competition. But it may also suggest your keywords aren’t performing properly.
• Keyword Difficulty: This stat tells you how hard it is to rank for a particular term. A high-difficulty keyword means more competition because of how common it is. Meanwhile, a low-difficulty one means less competition but may also have low volume.
• Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Knowing how much you should bid and potentially spend on a keyword is vital to a successful PPC campaign. Keep in mind, though, that not every click results in a new customer. Plan your bidding and budget accordingly to avoid wasteful spending.

In addition to the data above, keyword tools also provide a list of similar or related terms. Use those suggestions, in addition to your ideas, to build target and negative keyword lists. Aim to limit the number and scope of triggers for your ads.

Ideally, your keywords avoid overlap to reduce competition. However, it is inevitable that not all of your target keywords are unique to your business. What you can do instead is be strategic, since keyword poaching pays off depending on who your market and competitors are.

4. Set Up Testing for Your Ads

Ads provide a significant ROI, but that does not mean they work 100% of the time. Testing is a critical component of any PPC strategy because, to have the best possible marketing plan, you need to continually adjust its elements until they fit precisely.

Use A/B testing to find the optimal ad for your campaign. Compare two ads based on their performance and see which one works better.

Here is a quick rundown on how you do it:

1. Select a variable to test and a result to measure its effectiveness.
2. Create two ads based on a target keyword.
3. Run both ads simultaneously for comparison.
4. Review the results against your chosen key performance indicator (KPI).
5. Repeat this process until it works as intended.

5. Manage Ad Bids and Budget

Running ads can cost a lot of money if your campaign isn’t properly monitored. Setting a budget and sticking to it is one way to mitigate this. Then, supplement it by having a bid strategy to limit your spending on ads that do not work and to invest more in ones that do.

However, extensively monitoring your ads can waste time, even if you save money. This is where automated bidding can help you. Like other PPC tools, options are available everywhere. For example, ad platforms include it in their services, and third-party software is easy to find.

6. Track Your Results Carefully

Success can be measured in different ways, depending on the nature of your business and goals. Preparing your campaign’s KPIs beforehand gives you a better idea of what to look for in a high-performing PPC strategy.

Below are the typical metrics used in tracking campaign performance:

• Impressions, or how many people saw your ads
• Click-through rate (CTR), or the percentage of people who see your and and click on it
• Conversion rate, or the number of landing page visitors who become customers

7. Outsource to a PPC Agency

If all of the information in this guide seems confusing, there is one more important option to ensure your PPC campaign’s success. Hire a PPC agency.

Hiring a PPC partner is the best investment you can make in navigating a PPC campaign for many reasons. They are already familiar with the process and have the right tools, making them cost-efficient for small businesses. A PPC partner knows the world of strategies available to you. Your PPC partner works directly with you to create and modify your campaign to meet your goals.

You also only pay them for the work they do for your campaign. However, payment models are plentiful and vary from agency to agency, so be careful.

Summing Up

PPC is far from a beginner-friendly marketing strategy. However, it is possible to learn and master it when you approach it step-by-step.

If that still seems like too much work, you can always choose to outsource the work to a PPC agency. Contact us today to work with our team of top-notch PPC experts.