PPC Blog

If you’re relatively new to PPC, you might not think much about website design.

Instead, your focus is more likely on things such as ad groups, ad messaging, and conversion tracking.

After all, what does the design of your website have to do with PPC performance anyway?

Quite a lot, actually.

It isn’t just about how your website looks.

It’s also about performance.

While getting qualified users to click on your ads is a crucial first step in any paid search program, everything that happens after that click is equally important.

And if users don’t like what they see or experience when they’re on your site or landing pages, then your PPC campaign performance will suffer.

This post will outline just some of the ways your website design can impact your PPC program.

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If you’ve ever watched videos on YouTube, you’ve most likely seen a video ad.

But for many advertisers, even seasoned ones, video ads can seem like a foreign country.

Therefore, when businesses ask us about video advertising — or if we suggest it to them — they often have lots of questions.

I will use this post to answer some of them.

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Recently, I came across a couple of online PPC guides that suggested you could get a PPC program up and running in just a few hours.

The argument goes like this: SEO takes time to ramp up. You aren’t going to get on the first page of Google overnight.

In contrast, you can launch a PPC program, throw up an ad, and have revenue coming in the door within just a few hours. Ka-ching!

If only it were that easy!

Unfortunately, this description completely misrepresents what it takes to build a successful PPC program.

Let’s take a closer look at this “you can build a PPC program in a few hours” argument to see what the reality is.

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For many companies, hiring a PPC agency is a big step into the unknown.

You’re not sure what to expect. And you might have some not-quite-accurate ideas about how the relationship will work.

We see this all the time with new clients. It’s why we have a formal onboarding process that helps us set expectations and answer client questions.

But even so, there are some things you should know even before you start looking for a PPC agency to hire.

I’ll use this post to outline four of them.

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Often, smaller companies struggle to compete in competitive markets where megabrands dominate.

When cost per clicks are sky high in Google Ads and competition is tough, it can be hard to elbow your way in.

But while it may be difficult, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Sometimes, you just have to approach things more creatively.

In this article, I’ll share with you some of the strategies we’re seeing smaller companies use to get a leg up in markets that are dominated by larger players.

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At the heart of every paid search campaign lies the eternal question: Why do people click (or not click) on your paid search ads?

Is it because they recognize the brand that’s advertised? Is it because the ad includes the information they’re seeking?

Or is it simply that the ad is at the right place at the right time?

Figuring out why people click (or don’t click) has become increasingly difficult as ads become more complex.

After all, it wasn’t many years ago that text ads had one headline and a simple two line description.

Today, we have multiple headlines and descriptions available to us—not to mention a dozen extensions to mix and match.

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One of the most common complaints I hear about the Google Display Network (GDN) is that it’s a money hog.

And that can be true at times!

But then, the same can be said of any other ad network — if not approached carefully.

So there’s no need to avoid the GDN out of an abundance of caution.

But you should keep on top of account settings that can rack up your budget spend if you aren’t careful.

Which settings do you need to pay careful attention to?

In this article, I’ll highlight four settings that you should keep a close eye on to keep your GDN ad spend in check.

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Many of our clients ask us about Facebook advertising.

Mostly, they want to know which is the better platform for advertising, Google Ads or Facebook Ads.

For some reason, this question has been coming up more and more often lately. Perhaps it’s because Facebook has been in the news so much. (Which confirms the saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity!)

Whatever the reason, it’s a hot topic of discussion.

As you probably know, at Group Twenty Seven we specialize in paid search advertising. We don’t offer advertising management services for Facebook.

However, that doesn’t mean we automatically disparage Facebook as an advertising platform.

In fact, if your advertising agency tries to tell you that paid search advertising is always better than Facebook advertising (or vice versa), then you should find yourself a new agency.

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It’s become a December tradition at Group Twenty Seven to compile and share a wish list of things we’d like to see in PPC for the coming year.

Sadly, we didn’t get everything we asked for in our 2017 PPC wish list or 2018 PPC wish list. But who knows… maybe this year will be different!

As usual, most of our wish list items relate to Google. This isn’t because we intend to pick on the company, but because Google so thoroughly dominates the paid search industry.

And for the record, we’d like to say that while our wish list is long, we know things could be a whole lot worse!

That said, here are our PPC wishes for 2019:

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PPC landing pages are something that many businesses struggle with.

While landing pages seem simple enough in theory, they often become less-than-ideal in practice.

One reason for this disconnect between intention and practice is that many different departments can get involved in landing page development — each with its own agenda.

Maybe product development wants to use the landing page to promote its cool new device.

Customer service wants to use the landing page to show off its beefy warranty plan.

IT wants to use its usual web template.

And legal wants to make sure that the company’s policies are front and center.

The list goes on and on.

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