So often, PPC strategy seems to be an afterthought. In their haste to start looking for keywords and setting bids, advertisers overlook strategy development.
Don’t let this happen to you! Take the time to develop your PPC strategy before jumping into anything else.
In my experience, PPC strategy development falls into 4 categories:
• Goals identification
• Campaign setup
• Conversion rate optimization
• Content marketing
I include content marketing here, even though some may argue it’s a separate discipline. To me, content marketing is a crucial part of many PPC campaigns, and assembling the content into a PPC strategy isn’t trivial. So I’m including resources to help with that.
Goals Identification
I’ve said many times that identifying the goal of your PPC campaign is the first step. What business goal will your PPC campaign help you achieve? The answer will drive your entire strategy. Be sure to separate ideas from strategy, anticipate client questions, consider marketing basics, and determine conversion actions as part of your goal identification process.
Campaign Setup
It may seem like campaign setup isn’t really a strategy, but you must think strategically to properly set up your PPC campaigns. You’ll want to incorporate best practices, establish setup milestones, and establish a reporting cadence. All of these activities will ensure that goals are being met, and they help make clients happy too.
Conversion Rate Optimization
A poorly-optimized website will render all the great PPC strategy in the world useless. Build in conversion rate optimization (CRO) activities to ensure your strategy will actually achieve the goal. Assign primary responsibility for CRO to make sure it actually gets done and someone is accountable for it. Periodically review landing page optimization best practices to ensure your CRO efforts will be successful.
Content Marketing
This is such a complex process that I wrote an entire series on content marketing and PPC. Knowing how content fits into your marketing mix, and taking the time to craft your PPC content marketing campaign, will help ensure that you meet your goals.
The Cheat Sheet
I’ve summarized the strategy elements into the ultimate cheat sheet for PPC strategy. Bookmark this post, and refer to it when you’re setting up a new campaign! Get the Ultimate Cheat Sheet for PPC Strategy.
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