Any business that wants to achieve success in 2025 needs to have a strong online presence.
From SEO, to social media, to a well-designed website, there are many platforms and tools that businesses must incorporate into a well-rounded online strategy.
However, while many business owners and marketers have a strong understanding of at least one of those platforms or tools, paid digital advertising often remains a black box. Platforms are always shifting best practices.
This is even more accurate when it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Popular PPC platforms such as Google, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Amazon and others, are constantly making adjustments that they hope results in more of their users seeing more relevant ads. Businesses and their marketing partners must respond by staying updated on what delivers results.
154i keeps a close eye on these best practices that can generate real results for the businesses that trust us. What does that look like? Leads, calls, purchases, etc. – the results that matter to a business’s bottom line. Campaigns with clicks that only cost money, but don’t make money, need new strategies.
Continue reading to learn about the PPC strategies we incorporate. You can even take the next step in growing your business with PPC by learning more about working with 154i.
Here’s where we would start.
Understand your business’s audience
To start out on the right foot in PPC, you first have to determine which platforms and ad networks you want to focus on. The best platforms for your business are those where your target audience is already present.
For most businesses, Google is a likely starting point. After all, the search engine averages billions of searches per day and nearly all demographics use the tool.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is another wise starting point, as it also boasts a large reach with many demographics. One aspect to consider is the age of your target audience, though, as Instagram is favored among younger users, while older users gravitate toward Facebook.
Advertising on other social media networks can prove successful, too. B2B businesses should consider Linkedin and businesses with core audiences who are younger may want to advertise on Tik Tok, the latter of which has become a popular search tool among those younger audiences.
Finally, consider whether your audiences spend time interacting with video content. If they do, then social media networks and other platforms that offer video advertising solutions could prove more beneficial than, say, ads that appear above search results.
Set clear objectives and goals
All successful business strategies require clear objectives and goals. That’s no different with PPC.
To begin establishing objectives and goals, first consider your business’s needs and its broader goals. Your PPC goals should align with both. Examples could be to increase brand awareness to increase visibility in the market or drive more calls and leads to boost sales.
Different goals will determine how you can refine and select specific PPC tactics, which we cover individually and more in depth in other blog posts.
Write compelling ad copy
No matter what goals you select, the content of your ads matter greatly in determining whether they will be successful. Strong copy that draws attention and calls users to action is critical.
The best ad copy understands its intended audiences deeply. Not only will it use relevant keywords that target users are already searching for, but it also recognizes their emotions and suggests solutions to problems.
Don’t forget to expand on the features of your product of service by promoting benefits. For example, a car with all the safety bells and whistles (features) provides peace of mind (benefit) knowing that loved ones traveling in it are protected.
The challenge with PPC ad copy is that it’s often limited to a specific number of characters. Pay attention to these limitations to prevent your ad copy from not being displayed in full.
Optimize ads for conversion
Delivering well-written ads to relevant users is only half of the process. Next, you need to make sure your ads are optimized and set up to convert clicks into purchases, signups or whichever desired action you’ve defined in your PPC strategy goals.
Next, you need to make sure your ads are sending users who click to compelling, well-designed landing pages. This is where users will ideally take your desired action. Whether these are pages exclusive to certain ad campaigns (a good strategy for tracking and testing results) or general web pages, landing pages must have clear calls to action. The should also follow much of the same copy and content principles as ads themselves: clarity, proper tone and emotion and proof your business can solve the visitors’ problems.
Other PPC ad optimization strategies include a focus on quality video and photos in ads, paying attention to and improving ad quality scores, refining relevant keywords and filtering out negative keywords that you don’t want your ads to be served next to.
Monitor, test and adjust
Finally, never allow a PPC campaign to sit and run unobserved. Always monitor campaigns to make sure they are meeting your business’s objectives and goals.
Always adjust campaigns that aren’t meeting expectations. Create A/B tests by creating separate campaigns with one differing variable and seeing which campaign performs the best.
Partner with PPC experts
Managing a successful PPC ad campaign takes time and effort. There’s no way around this fact.
That’s why having trusted experts at your side to help you establish goals, set strategies and generate desired results is invaluable.
With 154i, your business can have that partner you can trust to deliver results. Contact us today to learn how we can help your business grow.