It took my firm 12 years to implement the “lead” recipe, but PPC and SEO have taken my firm to the next level. Just a glimpse at our projected numbers. We are on pace to meet with 400 CEOs this year. A huge accomplishment for my firm.
We are the number one organic Google search for over 30 keywords and our PPC ads come up on the first page. Our campaign continues to generate leads every day.
I personally set up the campaign back in 2012 and for three months, we paid Google $2,500 a month with zero leads. I was about to pull the plug at the end of week 12, but decided to give it another two weeks…on week 13, leads started streaming in daily, at times, 3-4 firms would contact us in one day. I will warn you, if you do not have a PPC expert in-house, you will be flushing money down the toilet.
Here is my recipe to success if you plan to invest in PPC;
- Which vertical and service make you the most money? This is the first step a business should research before embarking into the PPC and SEO digital universe. The research will help you determine keywords, phrases, pain points, and challenges you solve for your clients. If you don’t have access to metrics, sit down with your team, and start a brainstorming session. Which vertical makes you the most revenue, what problems do you solve, and then develop your value proposition?
- Research Specific keywords – Once you complete the exercise above. You will come up with a long list of keywords. These keywords(phrases) are what your prospective clients enter in a Google search bar when they require your service. I suggest you come up with at least 20 keywords. Google Keyword analysis tool will give you an accurate count on how many times those specific keywords are searched for each month.
- Create A & B Landing pages – This is an absolute must. You DO NOT point PPC ads to your website. You point them to your landing pages. Your PPC expert should know how to point to an A and a B LP. You can then determine which page converts the most visitors. These are metrics your firm needs to pay very close attention to.
- Write Laser-Focused Ads – You will need to get a marketing expert to write these for you. The ad must have a value proposition that hits a nerve with your prospect. They need to see your ad that shouts…WE SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM!!! WE ARE HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!!! The text in your add needs to speak volumes to your audience.
- Schedule – 24-7 or Biz Hours – This is up to you. I ran my ads during business hours M-F. I had a limited budget and was not going to blow my budget after hours.
- Select a specific Geography – This is important. If your firm prefers to only meet face to face with prospects, your campaign needs to be configured so businesses in your area locate you. I see many ads that do not follow this simple rule. You do not want your ad showing up in China. Your budget will be spent faster than a turkey gets cooked on Thanksgiving. Now, if you have a SaaS product, you can go global. If you have a tight budget, configure the campaign to run in specific states or cities.
- Optimizing the PPC tool – Get certified if you have time. I initially set up the campaign back in 2012. It was much easier to operate, plus I had time to research how to optimize the platform. Today is a different ball game. I suggest you hire a PPC firm. If you do not know one, I have a list of experts I can recommend.
- Measuring success – Learn Google Analytics inside and out. If you hire a PPC firm, you won’t need to learn GA forwards and backward. They will go over all the metrics. However, if you have a tight budget, get to know this tool. It is invaluable to the success of your campaign.
- Remarketing strategy – Remarketing is a component that needs to be configured on your campaign. If you have done the research for a product and left the website for whatever reason. A day later you go on com and select a story that you find of interest…VOILA…the product you researched the day before pops up as an ad on that same screen. Not only do you get back in front of your audience, it costs pennies. I would also suggest you create a 15-second video so when your audience goes on YouTube, your video will come up.
- Keyword variants – A PPC expert will help with this, but if you decide to do this on your own. Google has a tool that helps with keyword variants.
- Negative keywords – This is a fun one…NOT…this was something I had to watch weekly. We are in the help desk support business. One of my keywords was “Help Desk Support”, but I selected “broad search term”. What does that mean? It means fun stuff, rainbows and unicorns. JK…it means if someone enters “help desk support at Verizon”…my ad would come up. The person entering the phrase automatically assumes the top ad is Verizon, they could care less what it says. So, not only do you pay for them selecting your ad, you get a call asking for support with their Verizon account. Ohhhhh, fun stuff. Every week, I would enter a new word to the negative keyword feature. Verizon, AT&T, Hulu…it was a long list, but the false positives will eventually be minimized. This is part of the optimization process.
- Videos – This is a must, but not a requirement. Read bullet point 9 if you skimmed over it. Videos can have a powerful message that static ads do not.
- Bidding – The bidding process for a specific keyword determines your position in the sponsored section. However, Google has a very interesting algorithm for this bidding process. Google ranks your ad, LP, and keywords chosen. If your Landing Page has a higher ranking than your competition, but your competition is bidding $100 dollars for a keyword… let’s say you are bidding $5 for that same keyword…your ad will go above theirs. Why? It all comes down to your score. Google will determine your page is providing the information their client is looking for.
- Budget – This is important. DO NOT expect overnight success. This is a process and it will take anywhere from 4-12 weeks for your campaign to start generating leads. You need to run a campaign for at least 6 months to build momentum. You also need a healthy budget. If you are a service firm, 5K a month will get you about 20-40 appointments with CEOs.
- Set monthly/quarterly goals – This should be in place for all businesses. What do you expect to get out of PPC? Set your goals and your salespeople’s expectations.
One more piece of information. 99% of my competition is not leveraging PPC and SEO to drive traffic to their site. The 1% that was…90% of them are failing with their PPC strategy.
Feel free to DM me. If you want to look me up on LinkedIn, I am at https://www.linkedin.com/in/itmanagedservices/. Happy to answer any questions.
Good luck to everyone, hope this helps clear up any questions you might have about PPC and SEO. I am the proof in the pudding 🙂
