If you’ve got big marketing dreams but you’re stuck with a small budget, there’s no reason to despair. There are still plenty of things you can do to help your business grow and stand out from your competition. Contrary to what you’ve probably heard, you don’t need wads of cash to start drawing in leads with PPC. Just when you thought pay-per-click advertising was out of reach, Google Ads is actually much more affordable than you think. However, you do have to be smart about this kind of marketing. After all, if you’re working with a small budget, every dollar you spend counts and you don’t want any of that clicked frivolously away. 

Pay-per-click or PPC marketing can get you big results fast. Compared to other marketing methods it requires only a small daily investment, but PPC can be confusing. If you’re new to pay-per-click advertising, there are many factors to consider before getting started with a PPC campaign to ensure it’s successful, no matter how much (or how little) your budget is. 

Making Use of Relevant Google Ads Data

Data matters, regardless of the marketing approach you are taking. This is as true when it comes to pay-per-click advertising as it is with search engine optimization to increase organic search. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get good data ahead of time. This is why it’s best to use your PPC campaign to gather data while it is up and running. During this time you will need to monitor the data, continually evaluating it, to ensure your ads are getting the best results possible.

Of course, looking at all the metrics Google gives you with Google Ads advertising can be mind-boggling. In particular, it can be difficult how to interpret the data given to you and how to determine which data is most relevant to your needs. 

Once you run a PPC marketing campaign, it will be important to get conversion tracking set up and pay close attention to the data you receive. This will tell you the number of people who are actually clicking on your ads after conducting searches based on the keywords you’ve chosen. It’s a great way to measure your overall success and to let you know which keywords are doing the best for your PPC campaign. This will help you determine where to allocate funds in your SEO and PPC marketing. Down the line, you can make adjustments, changing up your pay-per-click advertising based on the number of clicks you’re getting for different ads, and ensure you’re making the most of your budget. 

Test Many Ads in Many Markets

The best PPC ad campaigns require a lot of testing. After you begin rolling them out, it may be tempting to sit back in the belief the hard work is done. However, the work is just getting started. After you’ve launched your Google Ads advertising campaign, you’ll still need to test your ads to make sure they are getting you the leads you need to make them worth the portion of your allocated budget. 

Fortunately, testing isn’t really a difficult process when it comes to SEO and PPC marketing, especially when compared to other types of advertising. This is in large part due to the mountains of data mentioned above that Google provides. There will be a wealth of information available regarding how your PPC ads are doing so you can keep track of the numbers and overall conversion rates. 

It’s important to try out different ads and see how each one fares compared to the others. Among the first steps you’ll need to take during the testing phase is to decide what you’re going to test. When it comes to SEO and PPC marketing, there are various things you can test for. This can include the body text of the ad itself. With pay-per-click advertising, an ad is made up of several lines of text including:

• The headlines
• The body text
• The link
• The keywords 

It’s recommended you try testing for each section of the ad, as each line could have a big impact on your overall results in the long run. Different headlines can dramatically impact whether you get clicks, whereas the text in an ad can determine whether people actually convert. Meanwhile, where an ad links, such as the homepage of your website or a special landing page, can determine how well you’re able to generate new leads. 

Know Why You’re Testing Your Google Ads Advertising

As already mentioned, testing is important, but just as important is knowing why you’re testing. Depending on the type of business you run, you may have different goals when it comes to your PPC marketing efforts. Some businesses may just want to get people to their site and generate new leads. However, others may want to use their SEO and PPC marketing to get new sales right away.

Knowing what your true goal is from the moment you launch your pay-per-click advertising campaign will help you overcome obstacles. This can help you steer clear of potential pitfalls as you perform tests and check the numbers on your campaign. For example, while you may be generating plenty of leads in one market, if your goal is actually to make sales, this may not be the market you want to stick with regardless of how well you’re doing with lead generation. It might be time to go ahead and put your marketing dollars elsewhere and try performing more tests to try and find a market better suited to your original goal. 

How to Maintain a Focused PPC Marketing Campaign

Many factors are important when crafting PPC marketing campaigns, especially creating PPC ads relevant to your potential customers’ interests. Relevancy matters for getting people to click, and the short nature of Google Ads advertising means you have limited space to reach out and speak to people about what it is you have to offer. It’s important to maintain a focused campaign in everything you do, centering your PPC ads around your unique selling proposition. 

You also need to provide complete clarity to individuals who may be enticed to click through about what waits for them on the other side of the ad, whether it’s your site where they can sign up for a special offer you have available or where they can purchase the incredible product you have available to help them solve a problem or fulfill a desire. 

Why keep the focus of your ad on what you specifically have to offer? It’s true you may get fewer clicks this way, but what matters is the potential customers who do happen to click through are far more likely to be interested in making a purchase. Especially with a small budget, you want to avoid “curious clickers” just because they want to see what it’s all about. Having a focused campaign that is completely clear about what you are offering ensures individuals who click on your PPC ads are interested in your product or service. 

While those on a small budget may find themselves nervous about the idea of investing money in a pay-per-click advertising campaign, this is often the best move to make for immediate results. It takes little money to get started and can be continually tweaked over time, allowing you to improve your results as you monitor your performance. Pay-per-click advertising also works incredibly well for those in many types of industries, whether you have something to sell or you are attempting to advertise your service. It’s an easy way to rank on Google, giving you a leg-up on your competition who thinks they can’t afford PPC advertising. 

If you think pay-per-click advertising sounds like the right move for you and your budget, but you don’t know where to begin, contact us. Our smart Google Ads team can help you build an affordable pay-per-click advertising campaign (including tweaking and testing) to help put you at the top of the Google page for quick leads and sales!