A daunting, yet fruitful tool for anyone looking to drive more traffic to their sites is pay-per click campaigns. These ad campaigns are run through Google to increase your company’s chances of being found in a traditional Google search. There are a few ways to successfully kickstart your PPC campaign.
Say you are a new pastry chef in Nashville. You may create stunning wedding cakes, custom desserts, as well as have a storefront. You would want to appear in a search for “nashville bakery.” However, if you’re a new business or new website, it can take significant time to appear on those first couple Google result pages. Creating a PPC campaign targeting this keyword “nashville bakery” is a much more attainable goal when first starting out.
Here are some tried and true tips for kickstarting your PPC campaign:
Start small
Don’t sink a ton of money into your ad campaign at the beginning. Just like you, it takes a little bit of time for Google to learn your site. Start with a manageable budget with plans to increase it as you discover what works and what doesn’t.
Do keyword research
It may be completely unattainable to appear in a Google search for “bakery,” simply because of how common of a word it is. “Nashville bakery” is a little more specific, however, Nashville may have a very saturated bakery market. Try to find keywords that you are likely to use naturally on your site, and then do research to see how much competition there is for the keyword. Something like “custom wedding cakes in nashville” may be a much more attainable keyword to rank for. Some common tools include: SEMrush, Wordtracker, and Ahrefs.
Get on everyday
At least at the beginning, PPC campaigns are very needy. They require you to log on everyday and monitor progress. These beginning weeks are crucial to understanding what worked and what didn’t. Google will give you suggestions on what to change and you can weigh the options and make changes organically as you please.
Don’t get discouraged
If an ad flops, do not give up. There is so much useful information to be found in this less than ideal result. Look at the copy used in the ads — is it clear, concise, in line with your brand? Look at the keywords — are they too lofty, or maybe they’re not being searched at all. Take the lessons you learned and evolve.