Pay-per-click advertising has become one of the most effective tools available in online marketing.

When compared to social media, search engine optimization, content marketing and so on, it stands alone in its potential to see an almost immediate boost in traffic and conversions. Keep in mind, however, that it’s a multifaceted discipline that’s easy to get wrong. If you want to see a more successful PPC campaign, you have to be ready to innovate your approach.

Here are fifteen changes you can start making right now to see results.

#1 – Choose Your Keywords Well

PPC ads work by having you bid on matching specific keywords to your ad. How effective your bid depends on, among other factors, how much you spend, so you want to make sure that you’re bidding on the right keywords.

For Google AdWords, for instance, the Keyword Planner is a great tool that gives you keyword suggestions, letting you research and pick amongst the most effective. While this is a good place to start, bear in mind that many of your competitors might get the same keywords from Google.

If you find any words or phrases that the Keyword Planner doesn’t suggest, then you might have stumbled onto a keyword that your competitors aren’t already bidding on.
Learn More: The Content Marketer’s Guide to Keyword Research

#2 – Lead with Value First

It’s a solid tactic across all marketing niches and it works for PPC, too.

While your keywords should focus in part on the details and descriptions of what you offer, let the actual ad copy take a value-based approach.

For instance, rather than writing copy that describes your services as a “social media marketing company,” describe the values and benefits of the service, such as “increase your traffic,” “grow your conversions,” and “improve your impressions.”

Don’t think about what the customer literally gets, but rather what value your products and services offer them. How are you going to solve their problem and make their life better?

Free Bonus Download: Get a list of 13 quick tricks to increase your conversion rates right now – actionable advice condensed into a PDF that will increase your conversion rates today! Click here to download it for free right now! #3 – Include a Call to Action
It’s always best to end an ad with a call to action. The main body of the copy should offer the value and make it about the customer. In other words, show why people should use your service. What are they going to get?

Your CTA should clearly give the potential convert an actionable next step that the rest of the copy has been gearing them up for. A good call to action also adds a sense of urgency to the ad, like there’s something there for them to capitalize on there right now.

An effective CTA should:

Be compelling
Have a clear benefit for the user
Continue the conversion momentum
Actually, cause action
Simple calls to action like “sign up” or “download now” or “start my free trial” have proven to be a lot more effective than ads that don’t have CTAs.

Netflix has an especially compelling call to action: “Join free for a month.” The text just above the button also ads to it: “Watch anywhere. Cancel anytime.”

#3 – Target both Newcomers and Old-Hands

If you’re familiar with the concept of the marketing funnel, then you’re aware that you can convert people who are at different stages in the funnel.


The first stage is building awareness and interest, and this is where most PPC campaigns aim for. They use keywords to target those who might not know exactly what your business provides.

However, people in the latter stages of the marketing funnel know exactly what companies like yours provide and already have a purchasing intent. Use keywords specifically for people in the commitment stage of the marketing funnel, such as “hire social media management team.”

The closer your ad viewer is to having that purchasing intent, the more likely they are to convert.

#4 – Should You Bid on Brands?

Some people will say that you should never bid on branded keywords. There is some wisdom in this. For instance, you shouldn’t bid on your own brand.

If someone knows your brand name, they can visit your site directly; they don’t need you to pay for an ad to lead them there. However, if you provide products that belong to other brands, then you should bid on those keywords.

So if you’re a Peugeot car dealer, don’t bid on your own business brand; instead, bid on “Peugeot cars for sale.” It helps match you up with people who are looking for specific products but who have a variety of suppliers to buy from.

#5 – Find Your Long-tail Keywords

Many businesses and individuals stick to short-tail keywords; that is, keywords that are only 1-3 words long, such as “buy Peugeot cars.” This is the easiest way to make sure that you’re bidding to as broad an audience as possible, and likely getting more clicks.

However, a long-tail keyword like “buy used Peugeot cars London” is more specific, but it’s also going to appear more prevalently to those specific people who are more likely to convert. So you’ll want to find the long-tail keywords that apply best to your business.

A good way to do that is to look at the organic search results that have led to your web pages in the past.

#6 – Quality over Quantity

Many PPC platforms have their own standards for what can help you win a bid. It’s not just about how much you’re willing to spend, but the quality of your ads, as well. In AdWords, for instance, this is measured by a “Quality Score”.

This takes into account not just your click-through rate, but the relevance of the ads to the chosen keywords and the relevance of the site to the ads. Improve your Quality Score, first and foremost, by making sure that you’re eliminating any keywords for ad groups where they’re not relevant.

#7 – Focus Your Ad Groups

Relevance is a big part of what makes an ad group likely to have a better Quality Score. For that reason, you should make each of your ad groups fit a specific purpose.

For instance, if your business provides both social media marketing and search engine optimization services, you could brand them both together in ads for general digital marketing.

However, you’re likely to get more clicks and conversions if you create a separate ad group for the social media marketing keywords and for the search engine optimization keywords.

Ad groups work best when they have a narrow target. The broader the range of keywords, the more diverse the copy, and thus the harder it is for an ad group to work effectively.

Learn More: How to Take Your AdWords Campaign to the Next Level

#8 – Cut Clicks that Don’t Convert

You might find that a lot of people are getting exposed to your PPC advertisement, despite not being the kind of web user that you want to market to.

For instance, back to the car dealer example: if you sell only Peugeot cars, you don’t want your ads to appear to people who are searching for Mazda car dealers. You can use negative keyword modifiers to make sure that your ad doesn’t appear for irrelevant searches. In this case, you would assign “Mazda” as one of your negative keywords.

There are broader categories of keywords you might want to disallow, too. For example, unless you’re offering a free trial, make “free” a negative keyword. Many people might be searching for a company like yours as a place of employment, so if you’re not hiring, make “employment,” “job,” “hiring,” and “career” negative keywords.

You should continue to build your negative keyword list over time. This will prevent you from spending money on clicks that don’t lead to conversions.

Free Bonus Download: Get a list of 13 quick tricks to increase your conversion rates right now – actionable advice condensed into a PDF that will increase your conversion rates today! Click here to download it for free right now! #10 – Be Selective about Who Sees Your Ads
Keep in mind that there are people who will click on your ad with no intent to use your services.

There have been a lot of cases of “click fraud” where, for instance, businesses have clicked on their competitor’s PPC ads several times just to make them spend money without getting anything in return.

This could make your PPC campaign much more expensive, so use IP Exclusion to identify those IPs that are clicking your ads without converting. It makes sure that the ad doesn’t appear to those people in future.