8 Hacks For Running Profitable PPC Advertising Campaigns

In this post, l will quickly go through some of the best hacks that you can use to optimise your PPC campaigns for higher conversions.

These includes:

Without further ado, let me explain each of these points.

1. Retarget Your Visitors

It's important to install a tracking pixel on your site – so that you can capture your audiences.

Using this data, you can then run retargeting ads in the future i.e. retargeting all those people who visited your site in the past.

This is so powerful because, if someone visits your site, it indicates that he/she has some interest in your products/services – thus, they'll likely convert (warm traffic).

Also, retargeting ads are much cheaper than the normal ads – thus, you’ll get a big bang for your buck.

Thus, it's important to go on your site right now – and install a tracking pixel (if you haven't done that already).

2. Focus On Long-tail Keywords

Another important hack is to target long-tail keywords.

Most people makes the mistake of targeting seed keywords – which has a lot of search volumes.

However, these type of keywords are less likely to convert because the traffic is highly diluted.

Not only that, but seed keywords are highly competitive – thus, they have a higher cost per click (CPC).

But if you go for long-tail keywords, you'll easily get traffic at a lower cost – because these ones are more hyper focused & less competitiveness in nature.

Not only that, but the traffic tends to convert better since it's niche focused.

Although they receive lower traffic volumes, long-tail keywords tends to convert better compared to seed keywords.

3. Use Exclusions

The other important thing is to use exclusions in your ads.

Having a broad audience doesn't necessarily lead to higher conversions – because some of the audience might be low quality.

For example, if you're trying to rank for keywords related to mortgages, you shouldn't waste your time trying to include everyone – because low income earners rarely applies for mortgages.

For this reason, it'll be wiser to target only high income earners – so that you wont waste your ad budget on useless clicks that are less likely to convert.

4. Add Extensions To Your Ads

Extensions are also crucial when it comes to PPC advertising.

You should try by all means to add more info to your ads – so that your ads can occupy a larger real estate on the SERP.

Now you might be asking;

‘Why is it necessary'

Stats shows that, ads that occupy a larger space tends to get a higher CTR – compared to those that only occupy a smaller amount of space.

Thus, by increasing your ad’s real estate, you'll be increasing your chances of getting a higher CTR.

5. Test Different Locations

Another important hack is to test different locations.

For example, if you're trying to rank for keywords like; ‘How to apply for a mortgage’, you can test it in different locations like; ‘How to apply for a mortgage in Florida/NC/Los Angeles’, etc.

The reason being that, you'll never know where most of your customers will come from – thus, it's important to test out your ads in different locations in order to get more data.

Thus, instead of just targeting a single location, you should also experiment your ads in different locations (where necessary).

6. Use UTM Tracking

UTM tracking is also important when running PPC ads.

It helps to track and monitor the performance of your campaigns – so that you can evaluate if they're profitable or not.

If you observe that your campaigns are performing well, you can come up with strategies that helps to scale them even more further – so that you can maximise your returns.

However, if they're not performing well, you can be able to identify areas which needs improvement – thus, allowing you to improve your ads.

7. Spy Competitors’ Keywords

It's also important to spy on your competitors' keywords.

Using some spying tools, you can be able to see the type of keywords that your competitors are targeting – and you can use them when setting up your own campaigns as well.

For example, let's say that your business focuses on selling fitness products, you should come up with a list of competitors in that niche – and you analyse their ads.

The reason why this works is because, if those keywords are working for your competitors, they’ll more likely to work for you as well – since your products/services are almost similar.

Your competitors have already done the dirty work for you. You just have to take what's already working – and you run with it!

8. Don't Always Bid For The #1 Spot

I know this sounds crazy, but you shouldn't always try to bid for the top positions every time.

In some scenarios, the 2nd and 3rd ranked ads receives better CTRs compared to the top spot ads.

The reason being that, most customers have a tendency of scrolling through the results before they decide to click on any of them.

Thus, you'll likely get some traffic even if your ad is ranking #2 or #3.

And the beauty part is that, you'll pay a lower CPC than the person who's ranking on #1 – thus, getting a big bang for your buck.

But again, this varies from one niche to the other – thus, it's important to test out your ads & see which position works best for you.

Wrapping Up

So these are the 8 best hacks that you can use to improve your PPC campaigns.

If you implement them properly, you'll get the best ROI on your ad campaigns.

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