The game of marketing is getting the largest return on your investment. Essentially, marketers want to spend as little as possible while making as much as possible. That’s why you hear businesses talk about things like cost per click (CPC) and conversion rates, which are major factors in your ad spend versus your return.

When using any pay per click (PPC) advertising account, such as AdWords, don’t just lower your bid right away. There are five things that you can do to make sure your account stays healthy when you lower your bid.

SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT

An obvious step, but for a lot of first-time PPC users it is important to note. On platforms like Google AdWords the account setting will be automatically set to default. This means you could create your account and immediately start a campaign without really doing any work to set it all up. It is tedious, I know, but it is vital to set up your account specifically for your campaign. Look at broad match, location targeting and ad groups, and customize these to your needs for better results.

MAKE RELEVANT ADS

Creating ads that work is a trial and error process. It is a good idea to test a variation of ads with different verbiage and images to see what generates the most clicks. While you want to increase your click through rate, keep in mind that the ad should be specific and relevant to the product/service advertised. Get straight to the point, and make sure the ad links to the appropriate landing page (not just your website home page).

CHOOSE POWERFUL KEYWORDS

Knowing which keywords to utilize is important in ensuring the success of your campaign. But it doesn’t stop with keywords – in most accounts, like AdWords, you can specify key phrases and even negative keywords. Negative keywords ensure that your ad doesn’t appear in an unrelated search. This will help you save money on clicks that won’t produce sales, therefore lowering your CPC.

PAY ATTENTION TO QUALITY SCORE

Quality score is one of the most important factors in ad ranking, which is key to a lower CPC. The above elements (a properly setup account, relevant ads, and keywords) are essential factors in your quality score, along with account history and performance. This will take time, but if you are strategic with your account from the start you will be creating good performance history right away.

DECREASE YOUR BID

Now that you have a fully functioning account with a good quality score, you’ll be able to decrease your bid. Google rewards accounts with high quality by allowing them to decrease their bids without sacrificing their position (ad rank). While this feels like a success, don’t get lazy with your account now. Keep an eye out for any sudden drop off in volume and lower ad rank as that will hurt your account, and might force you to increase your bid again. To maintain a low CPC you will need to ensure good upkeep of your quality score factors.

If you’d like to learn more about ad ranking and quality score, you can visit our blog post here. Lowering your CPC can be a process with a lot of work poured into your PPC account. But trust me, the payoff is worth the work! Lower cost with high return will have you feeling good about the time you put into creating a top-notch account from the start.

If you have questions or would like more consultation on your PPC account, please contact us below. We would love to help!