PPC

5 Tips for Better PPC Budgeting in 2020

Published

2 years ago

January 15, 2020

PPC budgeting might not be the sexiest topic, but being a good steward of your budget can have major impacts on your PPC performance. Budget considerations usually go by the wayside when there are lots of other new, trendy topics to focus on, like a new ad format, targeting type, or new channel. But staying on top of your budget can be more impactful—and more profitable—than trying out any of these new tactics.

That’s why in 2020, I’d love for one of your PPC resolutions to be centered around your budgeting.

It doesn’t have to take up a bunch of time. A quick check in at the beginning of each month or quarter can go a long way in making sure you’re treating your budgets with the care they deserve.

At this point, you might be thinking, “That sounds great, but what can I do to pay more attention to my budget?” Here are five simple things you can do to take better care of your budgets in 2020.

1. Start forecasting

I’ll be the first to admit it: I hate forecasting.

In a number of ways, forecasting feels like guessing as to what performance is going to be—-and it is, but hopefully it’s an educated guess that can help you make smart decisions about where you spend your advertising dollars.

There are a handful of data points you can use to forecast performance for upcoming months:

Google Keyword Planner traffic estimates.
External news organizations.
Month over month or year over year performance trends.

Google Keyword Planner traffic estimates.

Overall, the biggest takeaway for forecasting isn’t to be exactly right and predict the future, but to have some sort of realistic expectation of performance so you can plan ahead.

Is traffic estimated to double next month? Or will it drop significantly? Is there an expected turn in the market for the second half of the year that suggests you should front load 2020? Or hold your cards for a boom in Q3?

Spend a little time to think ahead and know what’s coming. Then check back in after a month or quarter and see how far off you were and what you can learn and adjust for next time to be a bit more accurate.

2. Create projection sheets

Forecasting gives you a long term look at potential performance, but using a projections sheet can help you understand where you’re pacing to end the current calendar month (or any custom date range for that matter).

ppc-budgeting-projections-sheets

The table above is from one of my client’s projections sheets. Here’s how the data breaks down:

P7D: Past seven days performance.
MTD: Performance this month to date.
Projected: Projected stats based on the most recent seven days extrapolated for the remaining days of the month plus the performance so far.

Here’s how the formula works:

(P7D / 7 * No of days left in the month) + MTD Stats = Projected Performance

If you want a walk-through of this, here’s a video showing how to set up a projections sheet.

Granted, this won’t be a guarantee of where your month will end up performance wise, but it can give you an educated guess on where you’re heading based on what has happened recently and the performance you’ve already seen that month.

3. Be flexible

If you’re putting together forecasts, you’ve likely also started to assign budgets to different channels or campaign groups based on what your forecasting is telling you. This is great, but don’t have this be set in stone.

Being inflexible with budgets can get in the way of maximizing performance.

You’ll notice that the projections sheet I have above doesn’t only include spend. There are other metrics like clicks, conversions, and CPA included as well. You can add any metrics you want to this formula depending on what’s important to you.

In this same projections sheet, I have different charts created for each channel: Google, Bing, etc.

Let’s say my budget for the month is $345k. I might have started the month wanting to spend $300k on Google and $45k on Bing, but given the performance we’re seeing this month and the difference in CPA, I’ve shifted my spend to maximize available volume on Bing and then spend the remaining budget on Google.

This flexibility based on performance is more apparent when you forecast what performance would be like if I would have stuck to our original budgets vs the current projections.

With just a simple shift in budget, we were able to save $1k in spend, gain 99 more conversions and lower overall CPA by $0.74. Now, these might not be hugely groundbreaking stats, but I’ve never met someone who doesn’t want to save money AND drive more conversions at the same time.

4. Choose the best budget type for your account

Getting a bit more into the nitty-gritty of campaign management, it’s important to make sure you’re using the right budget types for your needs.

Each platform has its own budget setups and they all seem to operate differently.

Facebook budgets work differently if you’re trying to use daily or lifetime budgets.

Google Ads has campaign level or shared budgets.

This is likely a quarterly check in item, but be sure you’re using the right budget settings depending on your goals. As your campaigns evolved and initiatives are switched out as the year goes on, it’s important to take a step back and ensure you’re setting yourself up for success and not choosing the same budget options because that’s what you did last time.

5. Know what you can afford

My last thought is for new advertisers or initiatives in 2020.

Although PPC has a great reputation for “immediate” results, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be profitable right away on anything brand new. There are those rare cases where a campaign begins to pay for itself within the first hours or days of launch, but this is pretty rare.

More than likely, there will need to be a period of testing, learning, and optimizing before you see your campaign be profitable. This is why it’s important to know what you can and can’t afford to spend.

I’ve had a number of companies ask me in the past couple of years what budget it takes to be successful with PPC; unfortunately, there’s not really an answer to that question. But there are some things I suggest you keep in mind:

Again, results aren’t immediate, so you’ll likely be spending more than you’re making for a period of time. Just because it’s not profitable right away doesn’t mean that the initiative won’t ever turn a profit.
You need data to optimize. There’s a temptation to set very low daily budgets to start. While being conservative can be a good thing, it can also hurt you if you’re not gaining enough insights to optimize from. Don’t shoot for the moon, but don’t restrict your campaigns too much either. Both can result in lots of dollars spent with nothing gained and, almost worse, nothing learned.
If your budget is restricted, do some of the forecasting and projecting mentioned above and prioritize the most likely avenue for success first. Just like with initial results, if this channel does or doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean that others will follow suit. It’s beneficial to test many different paths, but if you only have a set amount of budget available for a new test, focus on the most likely to perform first.

Focus on your PPC budget in 2020

Budgeting isn’t going to be the hot topic of PPC in 2020, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t have a major impact on your success. Spend some time getting organized for the year this month and set up a cadence of checking in on performance, flexibility, best practices, and new tests to ensure you’re not ignoring this optimization path in the new year.

PPC

The Ultimate Guide to Paid Marketing for B2B

Published

24 hours ago

May 25, 2022

Entireweb News Bot

Cross-Channel Engagement Benchmarks for 2022

Paid marketing is an effective way of promoting a business, and the various mediums for paid B2B marketing are Google Marketing, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.

For enterprise B2B companies, paid social and pay-per-click advertising can be challenging. The unfortunate reality is that the buyer journey for these businesses is long, with multiple stakeholders at different points in the process.

It’s harder to promote B2B than B2C businesses with paid advertising because there needs to be a rock-solid strategy to reap significant results from your ad spend.

Paid B2B marketing strategies have an essential role in this process: here are some tips on implementing them when used by enterprise B2B companies.

Use Display Advertising to Boost Brand Awareness

Before someone can start considering your services, they need to know you. The first step in any decision-making process is finding the supplier – you can do this by utilizing Google’s Display Network and company advertisements in industry publications.

Source

This type of digital marketing campaign doesn’t aim at driving leads. Still, you must keep in mind that these campaigns don’t generate direct results such as lead generation, mostly not in the short term if tangible results matter most for other business stakeholders (for example, shareholders).

This campaign aims to get your company’s name in front of as many people as possible. There are some ways you can target the ads, and we would usually recommend using keywords or an affinity audience.

Use Google Text Ads to Target Transactional Keywords

Google text ads are the most common form of paid media campaigns for B2B marketers, but they are also one of the most misinterpreted.

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Transactional keywords, or keywords as they are commonly known, refer to phrases that suggest a level of intent to purchase- words like “solutions,” “software,” and “business” can often be seen at the end.

For example, when someone searches for marketing software (marketing), their intention is different than if they were searching google on how to do marketing (PPC).

Transactional search phrases have a higher level of intent, so they are the target for text advertisements on places such as Google. Rather than being too broad with their keyword targeting, many companies mistake spending more budget on keywords that attract few search results.

However, as long as you don’t spend all your budget on these words without seeing any returns, it won’t matter. You can also use these AI content generators to create compelling ad copies.

Use Organic Keyword Research

The information-focused content on your website should address the broader search terms that are not targeted by your text ads. These searches require a more informative approach than an interactive one, so educating them on blog posts or another form of content is best.

You could also target these broader keywords with an awareness campaign, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Still, unless you provide educational materials in your ad, it is always better to approach those keywords from an SEO angle rather than trying to advertise for them explicitly.

Engage in Re-Marketing

Paid ads can still help increase visibility. Many businesses put pay-per-click ads on the first page of search results to target buyers searching for relevant terms.

For the right price, you can place an ad for your business – a pay-per-click ad – at the top of a search results page, and it will only cost you more money if you don’t place it correctly.

Regarding advertising, 98% of visitors don’t convert on just one website, so how else would anyone reach these people? The best way is through remarketing advertisements.

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Remarketing ads are digital marketing advertisements that appear specifically for prospects who have already visited your website. They show up on the internet as candidates move around and experience other websites so that they can be top-of-mind.

With all of the data available about customer demographics and browsing habits, these personalized messages allow you to create a hyper-personalized ad experience for every person – with or without an initial visit to your site.

Just make sure that post-click experiences (the landing page) deliver a message too.

Include Video Marketing in Your Strategy

Video has become a non-negotiable part of B2B marketing. More and more companies are waking up to the value of video in their campaigns. Videos help you engage prospects and boost lead generation.

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Let’s look at the most impactful video formats that you could use within a new or existing B2B marketing campaign.

Brand Videos – These videos are a subtle way of letting your customers know who you are and what you have to offer. They’re an excellent alternative to formal, overly produced sales pitches. Make sure your personality and company message shine through when creating the video. It would aid if you thought about what makes your company more valuable than your competitors.
Tutorial Videos – A tutorial video is a self-explanatory video that teaches the user something new. Tutorial videos, in a nutshell, take the user through step-by-step instructions on how to complete a specific task.
Testimonial Videos – Testimonial videos are a powerful way to build customer trust. It’s worth the time to collaborate with clients to create original and engaging testimonial videos.
Case Study Videos – Case study videos are a more comprehensive account of your work successes than testimonial videos. They focus on how you improved your client’s business performance and included ROI and conversion rates.

Videos don’t need to be complex for B2B prospects. Connecting with them and demonstrating your value will serve you well.

Concentrate on the overall ROI

Don’t worry about how many of your ads are getting impressions or the cost per click. If you have set up your B2B marketing campaigns rightly, you should measure overall investment instead of the value of leads.

You may spend $6,000 on one lead worth $50k or even $12k on one lead worth over a million dollars. These can be extreme examples, but what matters when looking at your long-term paid B2B situation measures how much money you invest versus how valuable leads come out and assess.

Increasing your overall return on investment will require you to make efforts and modifications in various areas. Doing this requires being brave with your B2B marketing strategies and abandoning established tactics for newer ones. It’ll also need long-term initiatives.

However, all these changes should be worth the time invested if you have the right plan to understand what customers want and effective communication. They are statistics to help track any progress made towards ROI improvement.

Adopt a Customer-Centric Strategy

B2B companies need to adopt a customer-centric strategy to excel in B2B marketing.

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A customer-centric company needs to have more than just good customer service. It should focus on providing positive experiences before and after the sale to drive repeat business, increase loyalty and improve growth.

When you give your customers the focus they deserve and combine this with Customer Relationship Management with the help of CRM tools, you have the key to a wealth of data- giving you an all-encompassing view of each customer. You can then use this information to provide them with more tailored experiences.

To build a customer-centric strategy for B2B marketing, a B2B company should take these actions:

Operationalize customer empathy
Hire for customer success
Democratize customer data
Facilitate direct interaction with customers
Connect company culture to customer outcomes
Tie compensation to the customer

To achieve customer-centric visions, companies need to have a customer-focused culture.

Wrapping Up

The buyer journey for a B2B company is often long. It can take a little bit to see a return on your paid campaigns, but you’ll likely cover any lost revenue quickly once you do B2B marketing.

It will help if you consider a couple of things when working on your paid search for a B2B marketing campaign. You need to ask yourself about the customer problems and then choose keywords that match those.

Consider video marketing to make sure many people are looking at your ad, engage in re-marketing, focus on overall ROI, and adopt a customer-centric strategy correctly.

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