Maximize Savings: 5 Easy and Effective Ways to Cut PPC Ad Expenses

PPC campaigns might burn a hole in your pocket, particularly when competing in a fierce industry or targeting those high-demand keywords. If you've got a smart strategy in place, you can sidestep shelling out excessive cash on campaigns that don't yield a good ROI.

PPC services in India demand ongoing attention to guarantee they're performing at their best. This encompasses tasks like researching keywords, crafting ad copy, managing bids, and analyzing performance. If you've got the resources to handle campaign management effectively, you could trim your ad expenses while still achieving results.

Are you investing heavily but not seeing the results you desire? Here are five straightforward and efficient ways that businesses can conserve thousands of dollars on their pay-per-click (PPC) ads:

1. Switch to manual bidding and reduce your cost per click.

The easiest way to kickstart your journey with bids and costs involves allowing Google to take the reins. You specify a maximum daily budget (and optionally a maximum cost per click), and Google handles the rest.

This approach is fantastic and performs well in many scenarios. It's also less time-intensive because you don't have to constantly oversee bids and make adjustments.

However, if your objective is to reduce campaign costs, you must transition from automatic to manual bidding and adhere to these straightforward guidelines:

• Begin with a low cost per click - Determine the typical cost per click (CPC) based on the outcomes of your campaigns up to this point, and select a default bid that closely aligns with that figure.

• Discover which keywords perform the best and raise their bids - Examine your statistical reports to identify the keywords that have driven the highest number of sales. Elevate the bid amounts for these keywords to enhance their ad placement and boost sales further.

• Further reduce your bids on keywords that received many impressions but didn't result in many sales.

By the end of this exercise, you should conclude with a set of keywords that you've bid more on than the others (winning keywords), a set with standard bids (potential keywords), and a set with lower bids (keywords to consider removing).

2. Modify bids according to location, devices, and specific days and times.

As you lower your bids with the exercise above, you should also take the time to review and discover:

• Which devices deliver better performance: mobile phones, tablets, or desktop computers?

• Which countries, cities, or areas generate the highest quality traffic?

• What day is the most and least successful for sales?

• When do you typically experience the highest conversion rates during the day?

The aim of a PPC service provider is to reduce CPC costs, so they focus your efforts in that direction. For instance, looking at the data above, consider increasing your bids for locations where your ads perform well. You can also pause ads on specific dates or boost bids for mobile devices, as they tend to offer a better ROI than desktop.

Your options are vast, but they all hinge on your data. As a general guideline, don't hesitate to make changes, but avoid making too many all at once. Take it step by step and be diligent about tracking everything. This way, at the end of the day, you'll have a clear understanding of what works best.

3. Review your keywords and add more long-tail keywords.

Keywords come with a price tag. When more people bid on a specific keyword, the bidding price goes up. If your campaign mainly consists of highly competitive keywords, your cost per click (CPC) will be on the higher side.

To tackle this, consider revising your keyword selection. Create ad groups centered around keywords that face less competition. These are often the longer, more specific keywords. While they might not have the same search volume as the popular ones, they usually cost less and can perform just as well.

This might sound a bit complex, but dedicating some time to finding these less competitive keywords can genuinely make a difference. You'll likely achieve conversions at a lower cost, ultimately saving you money.

4. Add more negative keywords.

You should include a regular task in your weekly routine where you review your 'search keywords' actively and identify negative keywords. Negative keywords can be responsible for depleting your budget on clicks that don't benefit you, and they also weaken the competitiveness of your campaigns.

If you haven't created a list of negative keywords yet, whether at the campaign or ad group level, it's highly likely that you're bidding on keywords that aren't relevant to your business. This is a major reason for the high costs per click (CPC) you might be experiencing.

To enhance the effectiveness of your negative keyword list, it's important to have a solid understanding of how keyword matching options function.

5. Review your landing page.

The relevance of your landing page impacts CPC costs. Your ad's landing page indirectly influences your quality score and costs. Here are some key points to consider about AdWords landing pages:

• Direct Users to Relevant Pages: Instead of sending users to your homepage, guide them to pages specifically tailored to the products or services mentioned in the ad.

• Ensure Clarity for Google: Make sure Google can easily understand the landing page's content. Use page titles, descriptions, headings, and content that align with your keywords and ad message.

• Use Different Pages for Different Products: Instead of directing all AdWords users to a single landing page, create distinct pages for each product or service you're advertising.

• Conduct Landing Page Experiments Carefully: It's beneficial to experiment with various landing pages and calls to action. However, be cautious not to make too many changes simultaneously. Focus on making one set of changes at a time. For instance, if you modify your AdWords campaigns, such as ads and keywords, avoid altering your landing pages at the same time. This way, you can accurately determine which changes yield better or worse results.

Final thoughts

The five ways mentioned above are not the sole methods to reduce your costs. Other strategies, like assessing your ad copy, activating Google Ads conversion tracking, and using ad extensions properly, among other creative digital marketing services, can boost your profit margins and drive sales.

SEO Executive at Infotop Solutions