PPC (pay-per-click) is one of the best ways for you to get ‘top-of-funnel’ conversions for your business. It helps you generate solid leads for your business, while also limiting who sees your ads to specific target markets.
PPC can sometimes get a bad reputation when it comes to cost. Since 2009, the price per click has risen by 53.4%, and cost per conversion has increased by 253.2%. However, PPC is crucial if you consider the long term, especially the lifetime customer value. According to reports from RJ Metrics, the average e-commerce customer lifetime value is about $1,300.
Just For Retail?
PPC is not just for B2C, like retail, insurance or other one-off purchase businesses. In fact, when used by B2B, like business services, PPC can be a powerful tool. It can act as a way to control who visits your website, traffic quality and the level of traffic.
This can yield significant benefits and conversions to your business. If you can control the traffic, you can then target decision-makers in your chosen industry and get them to visit your site. Then you can start building brand awareness and engagement with your audience.
The problem many organizations have is knowing what they can promote through PPC. Here are some ideas for your campaigns and how to ensure you make the most of your PPC budget.
1. Promoting Content
Blogs are an effective marketing tool in their own right. 81% of consumers trust them, and many decision-makers will read at least one blog post per day. However, getting your content noticed, especially when you are a new or unknown brand, can be tough. You would have to rely on SEO, which can be difficult in crowded market places. Not easy for conversions.
However, with PPC, you can generate traffic direct to important articles on your website. Then, you can encourage your audience to share your content on social media channels to increase the exposure of your content and generate more traffic.
This tactic can be very effective if you add visitors to a mailing list and keep them coming back. Only 30% of your visitors will return to your site unless you subscribe them to your email list or RSS feed.
2. Digital Downloads
Digital downloads are popular for a reason. For the prospect, they receive valuable information from an expert for free. For you, you can capture the contact information of the prospect for your email marketing campaigns, prove your expertise and introduce them to you and your brand. Conversions.
Digital downloads can also look very tempting on the side of a Google search and are likely to get clicked through to. Make sure that your PPC campaigns are linked to a specific landing page and not your home page. Otherwise, you will experience higher conversion costs.
3. Email Signups
74% of consumers prefer to receive notifications via email. This is why signing people up to your email list can be a highly effective strategy. Perhaps you might need to include a special deal to ensure that you have good click-through and conversions rates.
The thing with email signups is that you don’t necessarily have to link them to another landing page, you can link directly to a form. However, you might want to A/B test the form to see what your audience prefers.
4. Upsell/Cross-sell
With some PPC programs, you can target those that already have purchased from you. This can be very lucrative since you can upsell/cross-sell at a lower cost than selling to new customers.
This might need to be carefully constructed. Otherwise, you could waste money with improper targeting, or by not providing the right incentive for your target audience.
Final Thoughts on Conversions
PPC is a fantastic way to get those who are new to your brand to sign up to your email list (or even make an early purchase). The audience seeing your ads can be carefully selected, and you can tailor an offer that will be relevant to them. While costs can be high, the lifetime value of the customer afterward can be very beneficial.