At some point while managing your PPC program you may be faced with this problem – you need more revenue and/or conversions NOW! It’s not a terrible problem to have. In fact, your program is probably performing so well that you are expected to just throw more money at your PPC, press the magic button, and viola – greater activity at the same ROI or CPA!
Wouldn’t it be great if that were really how it worked? If anyone ever finds that magic button, please do share! In the mean time, the rest of us will need to find that balance of growth and efficiency that can be a fine line. Below we will cover 7 ways to expand your PPC market reach that we have found to be the most effective for growing volume profitably.
Every account at some point will reach a point of diminishing return. Luckily, in the ever-expanding world of digital and social marketing new PPC platforms and channels are always popping up. Before getting into the 7 areas, I find it important to first learn how to set up your digital budget to allow for expansion into these other channels. Below is the 70-20-10 model that we’ve found effective to maximize what works, and allow room in the budget for additional PPC market expansion.
The budget breakout above allows you to allocate 70% of your budget to the tried and true channels you know work, while allowing 20% for safe bet expansion, and 10% for experimental expansion. This cycle is always evolving. As you find other channels are becoming more “tried and true”, you then readjust. Now that you have a basic understanding of how to potentially budget for expansion, below are a few ideas for how to profitably expand.
1. AdWords
Assuming you have a standard keyword based search program using all match types, below are a few areas to consider before calling it a day with AdWords expansion. The areas mentioned below are profitable ways to grow your AdWords account if you are not already using them. The good news is that AdWords is always expanding and adding new features so this list will continue to grow.
- RLSA
- Dynamic Search Ads
- Competitor campaigns
- Google Shopping
- Search Query / Keyword Expansion
- Google Search Partners
- Mobile
2. Bing
Have you been so wrapped up in your AdWords account that you have forgotten about Bing Ads? Well this is a great place to start for driving profitable PPC conversions. In fact, in some verticals we’ve seen CPCs around 10-15% lower than AdWords due to less competition. The Yahoo Bing network has also seen a huge spike in volume as Mozilla Firefox dropped Google as the main browser and moved to Yahoo as the default browser. Here are a few ideas for profitably expanding into the Bing Yahoo Network.
- Transfer Top Performing Campaigns from AdWords
- Bing RLSA *Coming Soon!
- Bing Shopping
- Competitor Campaigns
3. Google Display Network
The Google Display Network is extremely vast and a great way to expand your reach by showing text and image ads on sites relevant to your business. However, GDN can also waste a TON of money if not optimized correctly. Below are a few display campaign-targeting methods that we have found to be an efficient way to expand PPC reach on GDN.
- Remarketing
- Dynamic Remarketing
- Custom Affinity Audience Targeting
- In-Market Audience Targeting
- Display Select
- Similar Audiences To Converted Users
- YouTube Remarketing
4. Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads are a great way to gain profitable incremental PPC conversions. However, randomly targeting users through side rail or newsfeed ads might not be the most profitable approach. Facebook allows you to target users based on email address and phone numbers creating a very targeted audience yielding higher conversion rates. A few other Facebook targeting methods that have proven to be profitable include:
- Custom Audience
- Similar Audience
- FBX Newsfeed Retargeting
- Newsfeed and Side Rail Ads
5. Retargeting Platforms
If you are currently running remarketing in Google, you already know what an awesome ROI retargeting campaigns can get. There are many companies that offer retargeting options beyond Google. A few we’ve seen success with have been AdRoll, Criteo, Perfect Audience, Ad Blade, Retargeter and many more. A few retargeting features that have opportunity to drive incremental revenue include:
- Facebook Retargeting
- Web Retargeting
- Twitter Retargeting
- Mobile Devices
6. Yahoo Gemini – Native Ads
This channel has seen a lot of changes over the last 6 months. Yahoo Gemini now offers conversion tracking to ensure you are actually driving conversions and not just a bunch of clicks. Below are a few areas of Yahoo Gemini that we’ve seen success increasing conversion volume for our clients:
- Native Ads
- Mobile Search Ads
7. Amazon Product Ads
Anyone selling a product online is potentially competing with Amazon. Good news, Amazon recently released its own version of product ads. While the program is still pretty top secret, this is another opportunity to expand your PPC reach especially if you are in the ecommerce space.
Closing Thoughts
Now that you have identified several profitable PPC opportunities to expand your digital reach, it’s time to make a plan for how to go about it. Below is an example of a market reach and expansion plan that visually helps you determine the priority of each channel and how much budget to allocate. The percentages are just an example using the 70% of digital budget dedicated to tried and true methods, while allowing 30% for expansion into safe bets and experimental channels.
While it may be important to grow volume, always make sure you are keeping an eye on your KPIs. Throwing money at a channel without a solid plan can be disastrous to your bottom line. With so many options to expand your PPC market share, make sure to allow your program room to grow and then test, analyze and repeat. What channels have you found profitable for growing your PPC program?
