How to Use PPC to Stand Out From Your Competitors
When it comes to digital marketing, competition is inevitable. Chances are you have more than one competitor either locally or nationally and in more crowded industries, it can be extremely difficult to stand out.
Paid search marketing, or pay-per-click (PPC) as some know it, can be a channel that your business can utilise to really give your business an edge. In fact, there are a numbers of ways PPC can be used to promote your brand, your business and its services.
Catch the Eye with Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions are additional pieces of information about your business that can be added to accompany your advert. These can include, but not be limited to, your phone number, a specific page on your website and your business location.
A great way to use Ad Extensions, and in this instance Sitelinks, is to highlight specific pages or services from your business that perhaps another company doesn’t offer. For example, if we were to promote ourselves we might use “Monthly-Rolling Management” as one of the Sitelinks as many of our competition like to tie companies into a contract.
This helps improve click-through rate (CTR) but also drives potential customers straight to the pages you want them to see and/or think they are more likely to convert through.
Highlight Your USPs in Your Ad Copy
Another area to really put some focus into is to A/B split test your advert text. We recommend having a minimum of 3/4 adverts per Ad Group to accurately track the success of certain phrases and USPs.
In fact, now that Google AdWords specifically give you more characters to play with, it is much easier to get your message across to your customer without having to sacrifice any wording because it is too long.
Your USPs are what set you apart and this is the place where you make yourself heard, and more specifically, beat the competition. Offers, unique services and appealing to a consumers need for urgency can all really help your business in this situation.
Dominate Your Brand Terms
There is a chance that your competitors are bidding on your brand name, so to combat this, make sure you are also bidding on your brand terms. It might seem odd to spend money on your own company name when you may already show organically for these terms but nearly 60% of people don’t recognise which are paid ads and which are organic listings within Google - that’s a large proportion of people who might not even think to scroll down to your organic listings.
Reward Loyal Customers through Remarketing
Remarketing, when done well, can be a great return on investment. With the ability to build lists of customers who have visited a specific area of the website (e.g. Homepage/Cart/Purchase completion etc.) you can offer specific discounts or rewards for those returning customers.
By rewarding people that come back to your website, they will be more likely to think of you in the future too and instead of them deciding which company to buy from or work with, yours will be front on mind.
Gaining a competitive advantage through paid search marketing can be difficult in busy online landscapes but with focus and ongoing management of the account, it can be achievable.
At AdPilot, we work with a number of brands and within different industries and no two are the same. Some industries change quicker than others but it is important to regularly check your account and make tweaks based on statistical analysis and data. If you’d like one of our experts to help advise you on your account, please do get in touch with one of our experts today.
