If you’re not getting the marketing results you want from your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Social Media Digital Advertising campaigns, there may be a simple fix you haven’t tried yet. Improving the relevance of your campaigns to better target your audience and keywords will help you make sure that potential customers see your ads instead of them being hidden away by Google and Facebook algorithms. With the changing marketplace, advertising platforms are focusing on what ads are being served to their users. Just paying more can get you some better exposure, but if your content is deemed less relevant it will ultimately be hidden in the sea of other advertisements as major platforms will start to ignore you.
How Does Ad Relevancy work?
If you aren’t familiar with things like Google Ad Relevancy, it basically is the process of determining how relevant your advertisements are by ensuring that the ad copy and landing pages are in line with what the user is looking for when searching. In other words, it makes sure that your ads sync with the intention of a user’s search and not just the keywords they use – which also resulted in better click-through rates for you.
To understand how Google Ad Relevancy could work, think about a search term like “Cincinnati SEO Consultant”. Google knows that searchers may want more than just an SEO consultant – they are probably looking for someone to assist with their pay-per-click campaign or improve the WordPress site’s performance and page speeds. This means that Google needs to know if you’re really in Cincinnati and if you can actually help them with their PPC campaign or have an understanding of WordPress.
Google will look at your website and ad content to make sure it is relevant to Cincinnati as well as determine whether or not you have experience with digital advertising campaigns and other SEO activities. Google will also look at your social media presence and any other signals it can find to determine whether or not you are a legitimate company that helps people with their marketing efforts. Overall, it will make sure that you are actually a knowledgeable authority on the keywords you are targeting.
Improving Keyword Relevancy on Google
So in this sea of relevancy considerations and monitoring, how can you make sure that you are “relevant” to the words you are targeting? This can be done in Google AdWords by adjusting negative keywords to better explain who you are targeting. If you are targeting “RPG” are you looking for people interested in role-playing games or rocket-propelled grenades? When adding these negative keywords to your digital advertising campaigns it will prevent people who are looking for the one you don’t want from finding your ad content.
You can also focus on providing value with additional content throughout your site and landing pages, such as blogs or resources, that would naturally attract a targeted audience. Like more details about your office in the Cincinnati area or a blog about tips for improving search advertising efforts (a little like we are doing now).
Another great way to show relevance is to improve your ad headlines and descriptions to highlight keywords and their synonyms. If you are targeting SEO consultants then focus on words that will be associated with the topic like pay-per-click advertising, keyword research, internal page linking, etc. This will not only help you reach more interested customers but it will also avoid unnecessary spending for clicks that would never convert because they aren’t interested in your product or service.
Improving Ad Relevancy on Facebook
On social platforms like Facebook, you should pay more attention to how relevant your digital advertising content and images are to a specific audience, instead of attempting to use particular keywords. In order to optimize your Facebook Advertising, you should build more ad relevancy by adding targeted interests, topics, and even pages/groups to your criteria to ensure your viewers are more likely to be interested in your topics. You can also utilize Facebook Custom Audiences to target prospective customers that you may have collected information about in other ways like running an offline contest or forms on your website. You can submit lists with users’ names, email addresses, addresses, or even phone numbers that can be used to find them on the platform and target them with your ad campaigns.
Considering Your Return on Investment (ROI)
Return on investment (ROI) can be used as a metric to gauge how effective a given campaign or ad set is. It’s calculated by taking profit and dividing it by investment. If you are spending $500 on ads but making $700 in profit, then you have an ROI of 140 percent. This means that for every dollar spent, you’re making more than one dollar back in profit—and that’s a good thing! The higher your ROI, generally speaking, the better; however, there is no universal definition for what constitutes a good ROI because it varies based on industry standards and performance goals.
While increasing spend does often equate to better results, there is a point of diminishing returns. Depending on how profitable your campaign or ad set is, you may reach a point where spending more money does not significantly increase profits. Further, spending more money on a large campaign can lead to losses in unforeseen ways. Although you are gaining more leads, this could be happening at the expense of the average cost of capture. For example, in a Google Ads campaign, you might add more spending to create more clicks but your new conversions lower in frequency causing a decrease in your conversion rate and an increase in your cost per conversion.
If you’re not sure what will get you the best results, focus on a few specific digital campaigns instead of having one large-reaching advertising campaign that makes use of all your money. This not only helps you target your advertising but also tells you more about your potential shortcomings which, in turn, leads to better advertising results. Additionally, when planning service groups or long-tail sales campaigns, consider your return and profit for conversions. Just because you gained a lead does not mean it will convert. Even though you may have a lower conversion rate than others in your industry or your spending is more costly to get a conversion, you may see better close rates and margins on those sales.
Don’t Forget Your Landing Page and Secondary Ad Conversions
Remember that where you are sending people is extremely important to improve your digital advertising results. Landing pages for campaigns should be targeted for each ad you run, meaning a user who clicked on an ad for winter sweaters should land on a page filled with more winter clothing options. For example, if you’re running ads through Facebook or Google, both allow you to customize landing pages in addition to targeting more specific users. By having separate landing pages for different types of ads, you can improve relevance—and increase ROI.
Additionally, pay attention to what kind of information you are providing your visitors. Make sure that your landing page clearly communicates your main message without becoming too specific. The right balance of content and resources are a critical objective. Ensure that you are answering the questions or considerations that your ads may have introduced to your visitors. Here is an example, if you run a Facebook campaign for hiking boots, your ad copy should indicate that your company has several different styles available in various sizes and colors. If someone clicked on one of these ads from their mobile device, it would be very helpful if they were able to quickly navigate to pages that show which styles are available in their size or color preferences with links directly back to where they can make purchases.
Moreover don’t forget that you can have more conversion points in a campaign. Showing related products, offering whitepapers on specific topics, etc. can make help boost a page’s relevancy with the advertising platforms because people that may not connect with your original message may find another way to take action on your site. If a user did not find the hiking boots they want, they could still sign-up for new product updates or find a coat that they also need. Remember that platforms like Google and Facebook can only see what you are showing them, so if you only track a single form or product it can be seen as less relevant even though many of those users went elsewhere on your site to convert.
Always Evolve Your Digital Advertising Strategies
One final mistake many people make is to assume that once they’ve launched a successful campaign, there’s no need to evolve their strategies. But just as one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to selling products, marketing on Facebook and Google isn’t a one-and-done activity. The most successful advertisers consistently change up elements of their campaigns in order to ensure they continue driving positive results and always have something new and improved to offer potential customers.
As you build remember to create new iterations of your successes. Updating imagery, changing content focuses, and even targeting different geographical areas can help you find new audiences and prevent your campaigns from stalling.
I hope this helps provide you with some inspiration for your next digital advertising campaigns, and if you need to discuss your pay-per-click or social advertising tactics we are always here to help you grow.
