We’ve all heard about a classic BLT sandwich, but what about a PPC sandwich?

Hungry for success? Discover what vital ingredients should be on your shopping list when it comes to producing the perfect PPC advert.

PPC channels and networks

Wouldn’t it be boring if you ate the same sandwich for lunch every day for the rest of your life? The same could be said for PPC. You need to maintain a well-balanced diet, which can be achieved from using a variety of platforms to advertise on. The most popular being Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Once you’re settled with one, it’s worth diversifying your PPC diet by testing out different channels and networks. From search to display and video to shopping campaigns, using several networks to promote your products or services in a number of different ways can help you achieve your goals.

Keywords and targeting options

Next up: Who’s your audience? That’s the most important question. Knowing this will ensure your ads are targeted to those most likely to engage, and therefore become loyal customers. You can implement a variety of effective methods such as “audience targeting” (using demographics, in-market audiences and re-marketing) and “content targeting” (based on topics, interests and placements). It’s then down to the keywords. These are a vital component of when and where your adverts will be shown and more importantly seen by your target audience. Not adding these to your campaign is not an option. A bit like the bread and butter, they’re essential ingredients.

Ad creation and testing

When creating an ad from scratch, you should always use ad extensions to make it more appealing and relevant for potential customers. Extensions expand your ad, and include useful, additional information that give people more reasons to choose your business over the competition. Ad extension formats include call buttons, location information and links to specific parts of your website (to find out more, click here). This is similar to making an epic sandwich, where you’d add loads of quality ingredients to beef out a classic, boring sandwich and transform it into a masterpiece.

It’s important to test different versions of a sandwich so you can figure out the best combination. By testing ad copy you can discover what works best for your audience. However, you should limit how many elements you test within your ads. When it comes to testing, it’s vitally important that you make different variations similar enough that you learn from their differences. Too crazy and you won’t learn anything. You would learn more from testing mustard mayo against plain mayo than swapping tuna and sweetcorn from beef and horseradish. There are a number of small changes you can make that could significantly improve engagement. Tip number one; experiment with different promotional language (50% off vs half-price) as this slight alteration may improve your click-through rates. Tip number two, test diverse call to actions. You should aim to feed your consumers with something different to the mundane (where appropriate. We still have love for the ham and cheese). Tip number three, try using dynamic keyword insertions in your headlines. This AdWords feature dynamically updates your ad text to match a customer’s search term, making your ad more relevant to their needs.

Conversion optimisation

Running PPC campaigns without thinking of conversion rate optimisation is like making a cheese and pickle sandwich with just the pickle. You may have an increase in traffic coming to your website (success!), but they’re not doing what you want them to do on site. It’s now time to convert your hungry audience. A conversion can be anything you want to achieve more of, such as mobile app downloads, email sign ups or brochure downloads or if you’re a publisher, simply time on page. Directing potential customers to the most relevant landing page to their search query is key. It may also be worth checking whether your site is mobile optimised otherwise this can lead to high bounce rates and low on-site engagement. If I’m searching for brie and bacon baguette and I get served an avocado bap, I’m not going to be happy.

Analytics and bidding

If you combine all of these ingredients together, you would have created the king of all sandwiches and ultimately, everyone will want a bite. Now it’s time to get feedback from others on your creation (or in PPC talk, just analyse Analytics). You can then increase your keyword bids, depending on your sandwich making success, to ensure you’re getting your moneys worth and generating ROI.

Stuck? Can’t be bothered to make a sandwich? Want some help? Get in touch via the contact form below and we’ll be delighted to help.