Nothing makes business owners groan like the suggestion of Pay-Per-Click advertising. It’s a common reaction thanks to the poor results and expensive cost overruns courtesy of unprofessional marketing agencies. We get it.
Where many agencies fail is in the setup of advertising campaigns. From keyword research to conversion tracking, your PPC campaigns should allow you to gather leads while also giving you digital insights that can then be used for greater optimizations.
For companies that have an immediate need for sales qualified leads, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a powerful tool to quickly drive significant returns. Here’s how PPC helps these industries thrive:
- E-commerce
- Healthcare
- Travel & Hospitality
- Education
- Trade Services
- Legal
E-commerce
It should come as no surprise that PPC is a direct pathway to increased online sales. With targeted search ads and shopping ads, companies can showcase their products to ready-to-buy audiences. PPC campaigns drive traffic to product pages, which in theory leads to purchases and a greater return on investment.
While that seems obvious enough, there is a challenge that most companies don’t consider: What if my cost per conversion is higher than I can afford?
You can quickly run your budget into the ground if you’re not optimizing the overall buyer experience and leveraging customer data for future sales.
Is your website designed to encourage the sale of multiple products in one purchase? Much like a waiter upsells at a restaurant, your website should be designed to sell more products per session.
Are you remarketing to customers with future promotions via email marketing or custom audiences online? If you’re not monetizing this information you are missing out on the opportunity to increase your ROI.
Is there an overabundance of broad match keywords in your Pay-Per-Click campaigns? While broad match may increase clicks and gather large sets of data in a short amount of time, it typically devours ad budgets. Unless you have a robust negative keyword list, you risk driving unqualified users to your website while driving your cost per conversion to ridiculously high levels.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry benefits from PPC by connecting patients with the right medical services. Targeted ads help healthcare providers reach potential patients who are actively searching for specific treatments or services.
The healthcare industry is particularly competitive in medium and large markets. The consequence sometimes means greater keyword sets and/or higher costs per click. This is particularly true for hospitals and specialized services.
Does your website have clear funnels to drive conversions through phone calls, submission forms, or setting appointments? Using click-to-call buttons for mobile, submission forms for specific services, and third party HIPAA compliant appointment platforms increase the likelihood of converting those visitors you’ve paid to attract.
Unless you’re setting up multiple methods to inspire some form of contact, you’ll end up spending a significant amount of time and budget attracting people to your site who never convert.
Are you using careful targeting and correct keyword types to reduce the possibility of wasted ad spend? If not, you’re spending ad budget on the wrong people. Ads for a men’s health clinic won’t matter to a woman searching for the term “clinic near me”. From beginning to end, healthcare PPC advertising must be efficient and direct users to a site that is optimized for conversions.
Travel & Hospitality
PPC advertising is crucial for the travel and hospitality industry, where timely promotions are key. Ads can target specific demographics looking for vacation deals, leading to increased bookings and higher occupancy rates.
Some reports suggest that over 80% of travelers prefer to book their vacations online. The number of people who do their research online is even greater. It goes without saying that online marketing is the key to success for Travel & Hospitality companies.
PPC Advertising is an incredibly successful means of capturing travelers at every stage of the funnel, but most importantly at the point when they are ready to book a vacation. Your chances for success are directly impacted if you fail to compete in the search advertising auction.
Once again, keyword research and bidding strategies can make or break the success of your strategy. The path you take largely depends on the geography your customers come from as well as your choice of keywords to match up your company’s offerings with the searches people use to find their next destination.
Does your PPC advertising take advantage of seasonal fluctuations? If not you could be missing out on the time when people plan their vacations. For example, if you’re an Alaskan lodge open during the summer, people do their planning much earlier than someone planning a vacation in a nearby state.
Are you incorporating unique qualifiers into your keyword strategy? In general, travelers are very specific when they search online to make travel plans. For example, a modern luxury resort in West Texas should look at how their business satisfies the needs of people trying to avoid corporate hotels.
Education
Educational institutions use PPC to attract students to their programs. Whether it’s for universities, online courses, or vocational training, PPC helps reach individuals searching for educational opportunities.
Education covers a wide range of learning facilities from schools, colleges, training centers, and more. Given the prevalence of online training, brick-and-mortar operations end up competing with a wider range of options. Depending on the courses offered, they also have larger keyword sets that may include broad match, phrase match, and exact match keywords.
Targeting is critical. For example, a community college typically draws students from a smaller geographic area than a university or online education platform. It’s best to set your targeting carefully so as not to waste ad spend on searches that won’t deliver the best results.
Is your website designed for online registration? Your website’s User Experience (UX), course descriptions, and method of registration should effortlessly guide users through the discovery and signup processes to increase the conversion rate once a qualified user clicks through an ad.
Additionally, since learning and training are associated with big changes in a person’s life that evolve slowly over time, the use of Display networks are effective branding methods to build demand for the educational institution’s course offerings.
Trade Services
Trade services like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC benefit from PPC by reaching homeowners in need of immediate assistance. Ads can be tailored to local searches, ensuring service providers are top-of-mind.
Much like Healthcare and Education, the Trade Service industry is incredibly competitive in many markets. The crowded ad auction forces companies to not only be strategic with keyword sets and targeting but also requires them to have efficient processes in place to respond quickly to each new inquiry.
It’s important to remember the mindset of the customer when they search for Trade Services. Something is broken or not working like it should. In most cases that means the customer is in an “ego state” of frustration or anger. Are your sales processes designed to make the experience as quick and convenient as possible?
Are you prepared to maximize the lifetime value of every new lead? Depending on the market, the Cost-Per-Click for trade service keywords can exceed the profit margin for a single service. It’s an expensive proposition to compete for the most reliable keywords in a market if your customer service and sales processes don’t deliver good conversion rates.
We’ve seen the aftermath of PPC campaigns that use a one-size-fits-all approach to ad setup compounded by insufficient tracking methods and weak sales processes. Our advice is to be very strategic with PPC advertising and take greater care to maximize the value of as many leads as possible.
Legal
Legal services see significant returns from PPC by targeting individuals seeking legal advice or representation. Ads can highlight specific services, such as personal injury or family law, attracting high-value clients.
There are a variety of ad types that work for Legal practices. Display ads build brand awareness. Search ads capture high intent searches. Local Service Ads (aka Google Screened) offers a certain credibility and assurance for the user. Deciding which path to take largely depends on the goals of the firm and the type of services offered.
For example, you want to be the first firm a person thinks of when they are arrested for driving while intoxicated. Display ads can firmly brand your firm’s services so that you become the first line in a person’s legal defense.
In the case of Legal, there should be processes in place to capture leads and respond to calls. The mindset of a customer arrested for DWI is radically different from a customer looking for legal help with estate planning. The points at which the customer first engages with your firm, like your website or receptionist, should be fine tuned to properly set up the customer for success on their journey to find legal help.
Conclusion
PPC advertising offers substantial benefits across various industries. With PPC you can quickly drive targeted traffic to your website. Think critically about ways your overall marketing can increase conversions and maximize ROI over a shorter period of time. By strategically leveraging PPC ad strategies, businesses in these sectors can effectively reach and engage their target audiences, ensuring sustained growth and success.