The whole idea of having a professional SEO company on your side is to increase your chances for brand exposure and customer interest in an efficient and impactful way. There are many ways of achieving maximum exposure while making sure every marketing dollar is doing its part, and one of the most effective is to have a PPC marketing plan.

Inbound or “pull marketing” strategies, like PPC, seek to draw customers in by the use of certain channels that show them the right message when they are actively looking for your products or services. It is a simple yet effective principle: someone shows signs of interest in a product or service; a marketing agency proposes a solution.

Search engines and social media platforms have refined this art, making sure that customers are always presented with highly relevant ads that do not interfere with their user experience. In fact, high-quality ads and posts tend to look a lot like other results and content the user regularly interacts with, providing a seamless navigation experience and a more natural customer journey.

However, designing ads that have high-quality scores is not easy. It is a process that requires extensive research, knowledge of current trends within your industry, and specialized skills for designing professional copy, graphic elements, and efficient landing pages.

We have covered the most common mistakes people make when running PPC campaigns in a recent entry. This time around, we want to focus on the importance of having an effective PPC marketing plan.

Measuring Google Quality Scores

Determining Quality Scores

Google Ads Quality Score is the way the search engine measures how well your campaign will perform when compared to the historical performance of similar campaigns.

Nobody knows the factors they use to determine Quality Scores. However, it does not mean Google is not willing to provide merchants with easy to understand clues. The Big Tech giant grades your campaign in three general areas: keywords, ad relevance, and landing pages. It uses a 1-10 scale that provides marketers with clear indicators on where their campaign needs improvement. In other words, Google evaluates our campaigns so we can adjust them accordingly to reduce wasted ad spend and increase conversions.

Now, let’s look at the three general areas Google measures before assigning a Quality Score to your campaign:

Expected CTR: Google analyzes past keyword performance to determine how likely your chosen keyword will result in a click-through. Google takes many factors into account when evaluating expected CTR, such as the type of device used by searchers or how likely it is for searchers to match your keyword exactly. If there is a disconnect between your ad text and your keyword group, your Quality Score will suffer.

Ad Relevance: The copy of your ads is as important as the chosen keywords. Google analyzes the copy used in ads that target similar keywords and determines how likely it is for a user to click on your ad based on objective comparisons. It is important that the copy is always relevant to the keyword, but also compelling enough to entice users to click on your ads and continue down their customer journey.

Landing Page Experience: How people interact with your landing page tells Google if you are fulfilling the expectations created by your ads. Landing pages should be clear and useful, providing straightforward cues that lead users towards conversion. Confusing pages where users can´t locate what they want will lower your landing page experience and your overall Quality Score.

Why Are Quality Scores Important?

Quality scores serve two purposes: they help marketers improve their chances of ranking high in searches, and they create a tiered list to determine cost per click and cost per conversion. Higher Quality Scores mean that Google will charge you less money per click.

For example, if you have a low Quality Score, your Cost-Per-Click increases from 16.70% at 6 points, up to 400% when scoring 1 point. In general, you will want to keep your score above 7 for a discount that varies from -28.60% to a full -50% at ten points.

A professionally designed PPC marketing plan helps you create more relevant ads and increase your Quality Scores, which in turn greatly reduces your overall ad spend. However, PPC marketing plans require the help of multiple professionals specialized in different fields if you hope to achieve its general goals.

The Conception Of PPC Marketing Plans

Almost every PPC marketing plan starts by narrowing down a list of target keywords related to the products and services we want to promote. However, Google´s focus on search intent forces marketing experts to think outside the box when deciding the keywords they want to target.

For example, short, generic, high-volume keywords might seem like obvious choices for a specific ad campaign. But low-volume long-tail keywords that more closely match the way audiences regularly start their customer journey towards your products, usually bring in high-quality traffic located further down the customer journey and are more likely to convert. This, in turn, reduces overall ad spend, increases overall conversion rates, and positively impacts your Quality Score.

In the same vein, your keyword strategy must also include a negative keyword discovery phase. This necessary step will prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant search queries. Negative words are one effective way to reduce wasted ad spend and increase click-through rates.

After you have narrowed your keyword list, you need a professional team of copywriters to craft compelling content for your ads. The structure of the copy wildly varies from one industry to the next. This variation means that you better hire a team with experience in your niche to increase ad efficiency.

Lastly, you need a design and development team to create highly efficient landing pages, with eye-catching imagery and engaging copy that effectively captures the attention of visitors, seamlessly guiding them through your conversion funnel.

Hiring a digital marketing agency might seem like a steep expense. However, a well-thought-out PPC marketing plan crafted by an experienced eCommerce SEO company is usually the best way to ensure increased revenue and long-term growth.