A PPC ad can boost brand awareness by 80%. Since brand awareness makes conversions easier, it’s important to understand how to use these PPC bids for your business.

To get the most out of pay-per-click ads, you need to understand the PPC bid management process. Knowing how to budget and analyze your bids will help you get the most out of the money you spend on ads.

The process involves planning, bidding, analyzing, and further planning. 

What Are PPC Bids?

A PPC bid is a bid on specific keywords or groups of keywords to get optimal ad placement when people search these words. You bid on how much you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. 

The placement of your ad depends on the ranks of highest bids for these keywords. For instance, if you’re willing to pay $.20 per ad, but someone else places a bid for $.30, their ad will get placement more often than yours. 

PPC Bid Management Process

Why would you spend money to show up higher in searches anyway? The quick answer is because it works. 

46% of search clicks go to the top three results. By paying for placement in these top spots, you ensure more clicks to your landing pages.

You also increase your chances of grabbing people with intent to buy. 65% of buyers go to the paid advertisements. To get the most out of these opportunities, it’s important to make sure you plan well.

Which is the Best Bidding Option?: The Planning Stage

You need to understand your ad goals before you start a campaign. Do you want clicks or sales conversions? Determine what you want your ad to accomplish.

Once you know what constitutes success, pick some keywords that will rank in searches. You want to make sure the keywords are specific enough to reach people interested in your business. You also want to make sure they’re broad enough to show up in searches.

You can use tools such as Keyword Finder from Google to determine the best keywords to use based on traffic and high-bid amounts. This will help you determine which keywords to use.

You also want to determine what parameters to set up for your bids. You can modify bids to specify placement on specific devices or based on location.

Creating Ads that Convert: Planning Part Two

Once you have the keywords you need, you want to make sure your ad will keep people interested once they click. This means creating ads that will meet the keywords and ad parameters.

Make sure the keywords you’re bidding on show up in the ad copy. Any keyword groups you bid on need to show up in the ad copy to make sure you keep it relevant.

You also want to make sure you have a clear call-to-action in the ad copy. The idea is to convert leads. You can only do this by telling them what you want them to do with the information.

Set Up Bidding Parameters

With PPC bids, you can set up the parameters you want for your ad to show up. In some instances, you can even set up times you’d like the ad to show up based on best conversion times.

The most important parameters are based on the keywords you want to rank for. Set up your keyword groups and the amount you’re willing to pay.

Make sure you base this on bids that will allow you to rank without breaking your budget. If necessary, set up daily budgets for your words.

You can also set up location parameters for your ads. This will make sure your ads show up for people in a set area. This works well if you have a location-specific business or you’re running ads for a conference.

Analyzing Your Bids

How you analyze your bids will depend on the software you use to manage your bids. You can manage them manually, use the automated bidding software provided, or purchase bid management software. You can also outsource bid management to an agency that specializes in PPC ads.

Even if you use an automated system, you still need to check your conversions and adjust your bidding parameters on occasion. You want to make sure you have enough data before making changes. 

It’s best to schedule bid checks so you’re not tempted to check too often. You need time for bids to have an effect.

Analytics allow you to see how your keyword ads perform so you can modify if necessary. This includes:

  • Increasing bids with higher conversions
  • Stopping or modifying keyword bids with low conversion
  • Changing keywords you want to rank for

It’s important to watch conversion rates for your keywords. If a keyword has a high conversion rate, you might consider raising the bids. Low-conversion bids need adjustment.

Which Bidding Option is Best Suited to You? Planning Part Three

After you’ve run PPC ads for some time, you’ll have a better idea of what works for your needs and what doesn’t. This allows you to determine which bidding options work best for your business needs.

Take time to analyze your results and continue to make adjustments until you hit a sweet spot. This doesn’t mean you’re done analyzing results though.

Bid management requires regular analytics and adjustments. Once you start seeing conversions you’ll have a better idea of what customers are looking for. This helps you determine further keywords to bid on and better call-to-action statements.

Even if you use an automated system, you can’t just rely on this. You need to stay involved in the adjustments so you make sure you’re getting the most out of your money.

The Help You Need for PPC Management

The PPC bid management process requires regular work. This can eat away at the time needed for other business processes.

If you want to take advantage of PPC bidding, but don’t have the time to keep up with it, you can outsource the work to PPC experts. If you’d like to learn more, check out the PPC management services we provide.

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