Despite the recent changes in the digital marketing landscape, pay-per-click advertising – PPC – is still one of the most effective instruments to use. A well-placed PPC ad has the potential to bring in lots of traffic. The impact of a carefully-crafted PPC campaign can be even greater than that.
PPC campaigns are measurable; this is one of the strong suits of this marketing tool. By keeping track of critical metrics, you can boost the effectiveness of your PPC campaign to a whole new level. You just have to know which metrics to keep an eye out for. Below are the five key metrics to be concerned with.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate or CTR tells the tale of the content of your PPC ad and how effective it is in the eyes of the target audience. A PPC ad with a high CTR is an ad that can be categorized as highly effective. A low CTR, on the other hand, is an indicator of poor advertising.
In the case of a low CTR, you need to take a closer look at the content of the ad and ask yourself a few basic questions. Is the call to action clear enough? Is the ad’s main message suitable for the target audience? When displayed in a crowded place, does the ad catch attention well?
It is also a good idea to get a fresh take on the content of the ad. Have fresh eyes take a close look at the ad. In most cases, some small tweaks are more than enough to bring the CTR up to the ideal level. Changing the wording of the ad to better suit the target audience or altering the background color can prove to be immensely effective.
Conversion Rates
The click-through rate is only one half of a complicated equation. Bringing thousands of visitors to the landing page is just the start. The next part of the battle is converting the incoming traffic into customers; by customers, I mean people who follow through with the desired action, regardless of whether it is making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
The conversion rate is often regarded as the ultimate metric in a PPC campaign. It definitely doesn’t tell the whole story, but it is a good metric to use when gauging the effectiveness of the campaign. If you get lots of traffic from an ad but then have a low conversion rate, some adjustments are needed.
A low conversion rate usually means one of two things. You have either targeted the wrong audience segment or your landing page isn’t effective enough to funnel the incoming traffic towards the desired action. It can also mean an ineffective call to action or a badly-placed one.
Cost per Conversion/Action
The next metric to keep an eye on is Cost per Conversion or CPC. This metric is also known as Cost per Action (CPA), but the two represent the same thing. This is a metric that shows the cost of acquiring a new user or customer. CPC is very handy when you’re trying to determine the success of your PPC campaign.
If the campaign’s CPC is higher than the sales generated by new leads, you are doing something wrong. You can use the CPC data from a series of campaigns to figure out which strategies work. These insights will then allow you to reinvest in strategies that are effective, optimizing your PPC campaigns in the long run.
It is worth noting that a higher CPC isn’t always a bad sign. Many internet marketers now compare CPC with customer lifetime value instead of the first sale. Spending $10 to acquire a new customer that makes a $5 first purchase doesn’t make sense, but the future purchases that customer makes will justify the $10 CPC.
Total Return on Investment
When running a PPC campaign, it is as important to pay attention to detail as it is to look at the big picture. Every part of the campaign contributes to the success of it as a whole, and the best way to measure that success is by looking at the total return on investment or ROI.
ROI is an effective metric to use for regular reviews and long-term planning. Similar to CPC, a closer look at the ROI of multiple PPC campaigns will help you fine-tune your advertising strategies. The more you refine your strategies, the more effective the individual campaigns will be, and the higher return you will get in the long run.
Total ROI is also important for keeping track of the advertising budget. Even when you have a daily maximum spend for the PPC campaign, advertising networks may still exceed that limit by as much as 30%. You wouldn’t want to overspend and run out of advertising budget before the end of the campaign, would you?
Quality Score
The last metric that must always be monitored is quality score. Different advertising networks use different algorithms to measure the quality score of your PPC campaign. That said, there are a number of governing factors you can observe.
The quality score of your campaign PPC ad depends on the content of the ad, the relevance to targeted keywords, the content of your landing page, and the click-through rate. Improving any – or all – of these elements will help bring your quality score up.
So, what is the benefit of tracking the quality score of PPC campaigns? Similar to how search engines rank websites on certain metrics, advertising networks rank ads and campaigns using quality score. A higher quality score means a lower cost per click. It also leads to better exposure, better targeting, and eventually better campaign results.
Running a PPC ad campaign is never a one-time deal. For an advertising campaign to be effective, you have to invest time and energy into evaluating the campaign, the ad content, and the results, before fine-tuning your strategies for the better. These five metrics are the metrics to keep an eye on if you want the correct insights that will lead to effective, highly targeted PPC campaigns that produce results.
At Medialink we can run effective ad campaigns for you and your company. Contact us to get started!
