PPC – Marketing Agency St. Louis https://www.digitalstrike.com Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:27:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.digitalstrike.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cropped-ds_logo_favicon-32x32.jpg PPC – Marketing Agency St. Louis https://www.digitalstrike.com 32 32 PPC Bidding Strategies: Find Out Which One is Best for You https://www.digitalstrike.com/ppc-bidding-strategies/ Tue, 30 Sep 2025 21:25:30 +0000 https://www.digitalstrike.com/?p=6961

As you are building out your digital marketing strategy, you are probably looking to add a PPC (pay-per-click) strategy. It makes a great deal of sense to start advertising on Google Ads, as Google has come out and said that advertisers make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads.

While I’m sure any business owner would look at that as a good investment, it is important to make sure you are getting the most out of your ad dollars by selecting the bidding strategy that makes the most sense for you and your business. To make the most informed decisions about what bidding strategy to go with, you are going to need to know the following things: the difference between manual and automated bidding, the role of keywords in bidding, the different types of bidding strategies, and the pros and cons of each strategy.

 

PPC Bidding Basics

What is PPC Bidding?

Before building your Google ad strategy, it is helpful to understand what is PPC bidding. PPC bidding is a digital marketing strategy where businesses and advertisers compete to have their ads appear in prominent positions in SERPs (search engine results pages).

Advertisers place bids on the specific keywords or phrases that they want to advertise on. These bids are essentially how much the advertiser is willing to pay each time a user clicks their ad, hence the term pay-per-click. Platforms like Google look at these bids along with ad quality and relevance to determine which ads get served and where.

 

The Auction Process

PPC auction

Here’s how PPC bidding looks:

  1. Advertisers set a maximum bid on the highest prices they’re willing to pay for a click on their ad.
  2. Advertisers select the specific keywords for which they want their ad to appear.
  3. The instant auction takes place whenever a user searches for the keyword.
  4. Google ranks the ads based on the bid amount, the ad quality, the ad relevance, and the data they have on the user being served the ad.
  5. The ads with the best combination of the attributes above are served in a prominent position on the SERP or website.

Keywords’ Role in PPC Bidding

keywords role in the PPC bidding process

You’ve already heard a bit about keywords’ role in this process, since they are the key to a successful PPC campaign. Let’s dive into them a little bit more. Keywords are at the center of your PPC campaign because they are what you are bidding on and dictate when and where your ads will appear. When setting up your campaign, you are going to have to make sure you are choosing the right keywords for your business and campaign goals. There are three groups of keywords to look at when crafting your bidding strategy: long-tail, short-tail, and negative keywords.

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keywords. These are those more complex keywords like “best gluten-free pizza near me” or “best white casual sneakers for walking”. These types of keywords are usually cheaper and less competitive because they have less search volume than short-tail keywords, but they usually drive more conversions since they are so specific. All of these variables make long-tail keywords a cost-effective way to get conversions.

Short-tail keywords are shorter, more general search terms. Searches like “pizza” or “men’s shoes” are short-tail keywords. These keywords usually have higher search volume than long-term keywords, making them more competitive and expensive to bid on. These keywords are great for increasing brand awareness with the higher search volume.

When crafting your PPC strategy, it is best to include a combination of both long-tail and short-tail keywords. Having a good mix of these keywords will give you a good balance of increasing brand awareness with the short-tail keywords and increasing conversions with the long-tail keywords.

Negative keywords are keywords that you select to NOT run ads on. Negative keywords go onto a list that you create to make sure that none of your budget goes towards keywords and SERPs that won’t apply to your target customer. For example, if you sold premium menswear, you would want to add any keywords containing “cheap”, “discount”, or “budget” to your negative keyword list to not waste ad spend on these search queries.

 

Manual vs Automated PPC Bidding

Now that you understand how the bidding process works, let’s dive deeper into the different ways you could place bids. There are two different ways to place bids: manual or automated.

Manual bidding is a hands-on approach where you, the advertiser, are in complete control of your bids. You are in control of every aspect of bidding, from setting the maximum bids to adjusting the bids as data comes in.

  • Advantages of manual bidding: you are in full control, it’s good for learning how bids affect the performance of ads, and you can react quickly to changes to prioritize specific keywords.
  • Disadvantages of manual bidding: incredibly time-consuming, it is difficult to scale if you are running a lot of campaigns, and it’s prone to human error, meaning you could miss key opportunities that an automated system could take advantage of.

Automated bidding is a bidding strategy that uses machine learning to set the bids in real time for you. Google calls automated bidding “Smart Bidding,” and it is just automated bidding that uses machine learning to optimize ads using real-time data signals (like device, time of day, and location) to predict the likelihood of conversion. All you have to do is tell Google what goals you are looking to achieve, and then the algorithm adjusts the bids automatically to achieve the goal.

  • Advantages of automated bidding: it saves time, it is easy to scale when managing a lot of different campaigns, and it is fully data-driven, meaning that it uses signals like user location, device, and time of day to optimize the ads for performance.
  • Disadvantages of automated bidding: it requires historical data to be effective, it can be less transparent about how bids are being set, and you have less control.

Things to Consider Before Selecting a PPC Bidding Strategy

Now that you know the basics, it’s almost time to choose your PPC bidding strategy, but there are a few things you should consider before selecting a bidding strategy. The first thing you should consider before jumping into a PPC campaign is your goals. Your goal will completely dictate which bidding strategy is best for you. It is important to ask yourself, “What am I looking to get out of this campaign?”. Some common goals could be to increase brand awareness through impressions, to increase website traffic through clicks, to generate leads through form fills and calls, to increase sales revenue through conversions, or your goal could be a mix of these.

Regardless of what your goal is, it is important to establish what you want from the campaign and to establish KPIs before starting the campaign. Once you have a clear goal and KPIs to measure success, it’s finally time to select which PPC bidding strategy is best for you.

7 Different Types of PPC Bidding Strategies on Google

Here are the 8 different PPC strategies and the pros and cons of each of them:

1. Manual CPC (Cost-Per-Click): In this strategy, you manually set the maximum bid you are willing to pay for each click on your ads. The system defaults to setting a maximum bid for the entire ad group, but you are also able to go in and set a maximum bid for each target keyword in the ad group. In this strategy, you are responsible for monitoring the performance of your ads and adjusting bids accordingly.

Pros:

    • You have complete control over bids.
    • Complete transparency: you know exactly where every dime of your budget is going
    • Great for newer campaigns that lack data. Most automated strategies rely heavily on historical data to work effectively

Cons:

    • Extremely time-consuming. This strategy requires constant monitoring coupled with manual adjustments.
    • Presents the opportunity for human error. Manual control comes with the risk of making mistakes, which could lead to insufficient spending.
    • Incredibly hard to scale. When running multiple campaigns, it is very difficult to manually run all of them effectively.
    • Lack of data-backed decision-making. When manually running a campaign, you are unable to account for the real-time signals (like device, location, or time of day) that automated bidding strategies use to optimize bids.

 

2. Maximize Clicks: This strategy is an automated bidding strategy in Google Ads designed to get you the most clicks possible given your daily budget. Instead of setting bids manually, you set a daily budget, and Google’s algorithm adjusts your bids to find the cheapest clicks. You are able to set a maximum bid to make sure that Google doesn’t spend too much of your daily budget on one click. This strategy is great if your goal is to generate the most amount of website traffic possible.

Pros:

    • Drives traffic quickly. This strategy will get you a lot of visitors to your site quickly, so if that’s your goal, this strategy is for you.
    • Great for data collection. This strategy is good for newer campaigns because it generates a lot of data on which keywords and ads are working and which ones are not.

Cons:

    • Generates low-quality traffic. Since the algorithm is only focused on generating clicks, it might bid on cheaper keywords that won’t lead to conversions.
    • Opportunity for inefficient spending. The algorithm focuses more on clicks and throws conversions out the window. This opens you up to the risk of a poor return on your budget.

 

3. Maximize Conversions: This strategy is a smart bidding strategy from Google Ads that is focused on getting you as many conversions as possible within your daily budget. In this strategy, Google’s algorithm looks at real-time signals, like device, location, time of day, and audience, from each user and then bids on the users with the highest chance of converting.

Pros:

    • Highly effective at driving conversions. If your goal is to hit a specific conversion goal, this strategy is for you.
    • Completely data-driven. This algorithm analyzes all of the real-time signals to make bidding decisions.
    • Tied directly to ROI. This strategy is focused solely on driving conversions, which directly impacts revenue and your bottom line.

Cons:

    • Requires historical data to work effectively. Since this strategy is so data-driven, it needs a lot of data from previous conversions to make efficient decisions.
    • Risk of low-value conversions. This strategy is only focused on the number of conversions, not the value of the conversions. If you run a business where conversions are not of equal value, the algorithm might optimize the campaign for the lower value conversions.

 

4. Maximize Conversion Value: This is a smart bidding strategy that is similar to maximize conversions, but goes one step further and looks at the likely value of each conversion. For this strategy to work effectively, you must assign a value to your conversions. For an e-commerce business, this would look like giving Google Ads the exact purchase value of each conversion. Businesses that are looking at conversions as leads would give Google the different values associated with the different conversions, for example, a form fill is worth $xx whereas a newsletter signup is worth $xx. Google’s algorithm then uses this information, paired with the real-time signals, to bid on the auctions that are more likely to give you the higher-value conversions.

Pros:

    • Maximizes ROI and revenue. If your goal is to increase revenue, this is the strategy for you because it makes sure that your ad spend is going directly toward the conversions that will bring you the most money.

Cons:

    • Requires historical and sufficient conversion data. Since this data relies heavily on data, it requires accurate conversion values to work effectively. This strategy also requires that you have enough conversions (about 15-30 in the past 30 days) to be successful.
    • During the early stages, the algorithm can go through a “learning phase” trying to figure out what keywords bring the best conversions. During this time, you might have low performance due to the algorithm spending on keywords that aren’t bringing in conversions.

 

5. Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition): This is a smart bidding strategy focused on getting as many conversions as possible at a specific average cost. You tell the algorithm the average cost you are willing to pay for a conversion, and it adjusts the bids in real time to meet that average cost. Obviously, the individual CPA will vary, but the goal is to get the average cost right around the price that you set.

Pros:

    • Predictable CPA. This strategy creates a generally predictable CPA, which can be good for businesses that need to manage costs closely.

Cons:

    • Requires historical data to work efficiently. Just like the other automated strategies, this one needs a decent volume of conversion data to work effectively.
    • It can be unstable and less flexible than other strategies. This strategy is prone to performance issues during a “learning phase” in the beginning. Another issue that might arise if you set your CPA too low is that the algorithm might not be able to compete in higher-priced auctions, leading to fewer conversions.

 

6. Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): This is a smart bidding strategy focused on getting the highest possible conversion value for a specific return on ad spend. ROAS is a marketing metric that is very similar to ROI. ROAS is the revenue that comes from ad spend divided by the ad spend, multiplied by 100. In this strategy, you set a target ROAS percentage. This percentage could be 300%, meaning that you want to make $3 in revenue for every $1 of ad spend. Google’s algorithm takes this percentage and bids more aggressively on the auctions that it thinks will result in high-value conversions to meet or exceed the target ROAS.

Pros:

    • This strategy maximizes profitability. This strategy focuses on the higher-value conversions and tries to get the most profit from your budget.
    • This strategy is highly automated. All you have to do is set your ROAS percentage, and the algorithm handles all the bid adjustments in real time.

Cons:


    • Needs historical conversion data. Just like the other automated strategies, this one needs a decent volume of conversions to work correctly.
    • Limits your ad’s reach. Since the algorithm is only going after the high-value conversions, your ad might result in lower traffic and fewer conversions overall; however, your ROAS goal still might be met.
 
 

7. Target Impressions Share: This is an automated strategy that is focused on achieving a specific percentage of impressions on the SERP. This strategy is great if your goal is to grow your brand visibility or awareness. In this strategy, you choose from three different placement options for your ad: absolute top of page (first ad position), top of page (any ad spot before the organic results), or anywhere on the page. You then set a target impression share percentage and a maximum bid. This strategy is most commonly used when wanting to dominate the SERP for your brand name, if you want to appear first for your competitor’s name.

Pros:

    • You are able to control where on the SERP your ad appears.
    • Allows you to completely dominate keywords, ensuring that your ad is the first result when a user searches that keyword.

Cons:

    • Risk of overspending. There can potentially be a high cost associated with achieving a high impression share, especially on competitive keywords. This could lead to a high CPC and overspending.
    • Risk of low ROAS. Since you are only targeting impressions, your ads could have a low CTR, leading to impressions that don’t result in clicks and wasted ad spend.

 

Best Practices to Get the Most Out of Your PPC Budget

Hopefully, now you have a grasp on what PPC bidding strategy you are going to use. Here are some general best practices to help you succeed in your PPC campaigns.

Set clear goals and KPIs for your campaigns. Before starting any campaign, make sure that you clearly define what result you are looking to gain from the campaign. Set clear KPIs so you are able to recognize what a successful campaign is and what it would look like. By doing this, you will set yourself up to definitively know what is working and what is not working in a campaign.

Use A/B testing to compare strategies. A/B tests are extremely helpful when trying to diagnose what doesn’t work in a campaign. Using A/B tests to test the different elements of your ad copy will give you valuable insight into the aspects of your ads that users like and dislike. A/B tests take the guesswork out of your campaign by helping to identify what elements are working and which ones are not working, allowing you to optimize your ads.

Continuously monitor campaigns and adjust accordingly. It is important to monitor your campaigns for any fluctuations in performance. Even if you choose an automated strategy, it is still imperative that you check in on it every so often to see if there are any errors, because algorithms make mistakes just like us humans!

Maintain an optimized keyword list. Continuously update your keywords to make sure you are getting the most out of your keyword list. You should be deleting poor-performing keywords from your target list so you are not wasting ad spend on them. Review your negative keyword list regularly and make sure that you are updating it as new competitors come in or as you find the system bidding on keywords that you don’t want your ad shown on.

Optimize your landing pages. Make sure that your landing pages are relevant to the ad connected to them. Your landing page should directly match the offer that you made in your ad so that customers are getting what they expected. It is also important to make sure that your landing pages load quickly and are free of any errors. If you fail to do these, your ads will have a high bounce rate because users will leave your pages if they find them irrelevant or take too long to load.

Final Thoughts: Time to Start Running Campaigns!

A successful PPC campaign can do anything from raise brand awareness to increase website traffic to increase profitability. For any of these great things to happen, a campaign must have a great foundation. To lay a great foundation, you must research both long and short-tailed keywords to target with your campaign. You must then research and compile a list of negative keywords, or the searches that you don’t want your ads appearing in. The last step of laying that foundation is the most important: setting a goal for the campaign. This step is pivotal and defines success in your campaign.

Once you’ve laid a solid foundation, it’s time to pick the PPC bidding strategy. You have a few laid out in front of you, and it is important to pick the strategy that most aligns with your goals. If you choose to manually run the bidding on your campaign, make sure you are consistently checking in and adjusting bids as needed. If you go with an automated or smart bidding strategy, make sure you are choosing a strategy that aligns with your KPIs. No matter what strategy you pick, remember to regularly check the campaign to make any adjustments that are needed.

If you’ve gotten to the end of this blog and realized that running your own PPC campaign might just be too much for you, don’t worry, Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing is here to save the day! Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing is the award-winning digital marketing agency that can help take your Google Ads campaign to the next level. We’ve run countless paid campaigns on all major digital advertising platforms, and we’re ready to put that expertise to work on your campaign.

]]> Bidding on Competitor Brand Names: Pros, Cons & Tips https://www.digitalstrike.com/bidding-on-competitor-brand-names/ Mon, 29 Sep 2025 21:34:02 +0000 https://www.digitalstrike.com/?p=6949

Have you ever searched your own brand just to find that your competitor is the first result on Google? This is an incredibly frustrating scenario because your brand is one of your most valuable assets. While this situation is frustrating, it is a popular bidding strategy.

Bidding on competitors’ keywords is a PPC strategy that allows you to profit from your competitors’ brand, but it may not always be the right approach. There are also a few legal implications that could arise when bidding on competitors’ branded keywords. Before you start bidding on your competitor’s branded keywords, it’s essential to understand the difference between branded and unbranded keywords, what brand bidding entails, and the pros and cons of bidding on competitors’ brand keywords.

Important Things to Know Before Bidding on Competitors’ Keywords

Branded vs Non-Branded Keywords

The difference between branded and non-branded keywords is significant when considering whether to bid on competitors’ branded keywords.

Non-branded keywords are broad keywords that describe the category as a whole. An example of a non-branded keyword would be “men’s running shoes” or “trail running shoes”. These keywords are broader and appeal to a larger audience, typically at the top of the marketing funnel. These keywords are usually more competitive because of the larger audience and, in turn, are more expensive to place ads on.

Branded keywords are specific keywords that include a company’s name. Going back to our running shoe example, branded keywords would be something like “Nike running shoes” or “Adidas running shoes”. These keywords are much more specific and mainly appeal to users who are towards the bottom of the sales funnel, meaning that they are more likely to purchase. Since this audience is smaller and tends to be searching for exactly what they want, these keywords are usually less competitive. Since these users have clear search intent and know what they are looking for, these keywords typically have a higher conversion rate than the broad, non-branded keywords.

What is Brand Bidding?

To understand if bidding on your competitor’s branded keywords is a good idea, you first must understand the basics of brand bidding. Brand bidding is a paid advertising strategy that involves bidding on your own brand name or your competitor’s brand name as a search keyword to increase ad visibility for your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Bidding on your own brand name can be an effective strategy to totally dominate the search engine results page (SERP) and control the messaging around your brand. Bidding on a competitor’s brand name would result in a SERP like this one that popped up when I was searching for Ahrefs, a marketing platform, and was served an ad for their competitor SEMRush:

Image of Google SERP with competitor's ad appearing before organic search results

Benefits of Bidding on Competitor Brand Keywords

There are a few benefits that come from bidding on your competitor’s keywords. The first pro is the lower cost-per-click (CPC) that is associated with the branded keyword. As stated earlier, branded keywords have less competition and, in turn, are cheaper.

Another pro is that since these words have such a high search intent, they also have a higher click-through rate (CTR). If your ads are able to capitalize on this higher CTR, you will obviously see greater traffic and hopefully more conversions.

The last pro is that your brand will gain visibility on your competitor’s SERP. This can be especially useful if you are a new entrant to the industry and want to gain brand awareness. This can also be a great last-ditch effort to get customers to go with you when they are in the later stages of the purchasing process.

Risks of Bidding on Competitor Brand Keywords

While there are a few benefits associated with bidding on competitors’ keywords, there are also risks associated with this strategy. The first risk that comes with brand bidding on competitors’ keywords is the potential legal implications associated with the strategy. Although it is completely legal to bid on your competitor’s trademarked term as a keyword, it is illegal to use any trademarked material in the ad itself. To avoid trademark infringement, you must avoid using a competitor’s brand name, logo, or slogan in your ad’s headline, description, or display URL. A good general rule of thumb is to make sure that your ad has nothing that could confuse a consumer into thinking that you are your competitor.

The next risk that brand bidding on your competitor’s keywords opens you up to is the risk of starting a bidding war with your competitor. Bidding on your competitor’s keyword will likely end with some sort of retaliation action from them. This could either be them bidding on their own keyword to drive up the price, or them starting to bid on your keywords. If you do decide to target one of your competitors, make sure you aren’t picking a fight with a company with deeper pockets than you. If you do, they could wage a bidding war on all of your keywords and make it hard for you to protect your own brand.

The last risk that brand bidding on your competitor’s keyword opens you up to is possibly negative brand perception from users. As stated earlier, these branded searches have a higher search intent, meaning that these users are searching for the exact brand they have searched for. This means they know exactly what they want, and seeing your brand pop up as the first result could annoy them and soil their opinion on your brand.

When does it make sense to use this strategy?

Now that you understand the benefits and risks attached to this strategy, here are some situations in which you might employ this strategy:

  • When competitors are consistently bidding on your branded keywords. This strategy can be an effective retaliation when your competitors are bidding on your keywords. This shows that you are willing to fight for your own branded keywords and will start a bidding war that hopefully ends with both parties removing opposing ads to cut costs.
  • When you are a new brand entering a competitive market. If you are entering a competitive market, this strategy can be an effective way to gain brand recognition among customers who are already familiar with the industry. This can be a cheaper strategy if you don’t have the budget to gain brand awareness through bidding on the broader keywords in your industry.
  • When you are competing with large market leaders. If you find yourself in a David vs Goliath situation in your industry, it makes sense for you to try and steal a piece of their market share by bidding on their branded keywords. If you can meet these bottom-of-the-funnel customers close to the point of purchase with a compelling alternative to your competitor, you will be able to start carving a portion of their market share for yourself.

Best Practices for Bidding on Competitor’s Brand Name

If you and your team decide that bidding on your competitor’s brand name is the best course of action, here are the best practices to make sure your ads are ethical and keep you out of legal hot water.

Make sure your ads are in compliance with Google’s policies on trademarks. Google provides clear policies on trademarks in the Advertising Policies Help section of their support site. This is a comprehensive guide as to what Google Ads will and will not restrict in terms of trademark use in ads. It is important to adhere to these policies for legal reasons, but also because if Google finds you in violation of these policies, they will suspend your account immediately.

Clearly set your brand apart in ad copy. When writing ad copy for these bids, make sure that you are providing a unique value proposition to your potential customers. Gear the ad copy towards reasons why consumers should choose you over your competitor without using their brand name.

Be sure to set budget caps on these bids to prevent overspending. This is a good rule of thumb for any PPC campaign, but especially for these types of brand bidding campaigns. As stated earlier, these campaigns run the risk of your competitor retaliating by starting a bidding war on these words, driving up the price. With these budget caps in place, you will be able to limit spending, protecting your bottom line from these types of retaliatory actions.

Monitor competitor responses. It is important that if you are deciding to run these types of campaigns, you monitor your competitors’ response closely. Be sure to check to see if they have started bidding on the word to drive up the price, or if they have started bidding on your branded keywords.

How to Check if a Competitor is Bidding on Your Branded Keywords

We have covered all the pros, cons, and best practices if you decide to bid on a competitor’s brand, but how can you tell if a competitor is running ads on your keywords? There are a few free and paid ways to check to see if competitors are advertising on your branded keywords.

The first free way to check is by manually searching for your brand and seeing if a competitor’s ad is served to you. The second free way to check is through the Google Ads Auction Insights Report. This is a report that you can find inside your Google Ads account that will provide you with data on which advertisers are bidding on the same terms as you. The third way to check is through a paid service like SEMRush, Ahrefs, or Adthena. SEMRush and Ahrefs provide reports and insights as to the ads your competitors are running, as well as the keywords they are bidding on. Adthena is a paid service that automatically detects when a competitor is bidding on your branded terms and checks the ad copy to see if any trademark infringement has occurred.

What should you do if a competitor is bidding on your brand?

There are three ways to approach these types of situations.

  1. Start bidding on your own brand to protect it. When you bid on your own brand name, you completely control the messaging surrounding your brand. If your competitor is bidding on your brand, this is an effective defense to either take back control of your branded SERP or to at least drive up the price on the word so that hopefully your competitor abandons the bids.
  2. Start bidding on your competitor’s brand. Bidding on your competitor’s brand will raise the price on their keywords, starting a bidding war. Hopefully, this will incentivize your competitor to retreat and pull the ads on your branded keywords. This defense only works if you are picking a fight with a competitor that is similar in size to your company, and it will not work if you are getting into a bidding war with a company with deeper pockets.
  3. Check for trademark infringement. When you find out that a competitor is running ads on your branded keywords, the first thing you should check for is any trademark violations. If you find that they have violated the search engine’s policies, report the ad to get it removed.

FAQs

What is Brand Bidding?

Brand bidding is a paid advertising strategy that involves bidding on your own brand name or your competitor’s brand name as a search keyword to increase ad visibility for your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign.

Branded keywords are specific keywords that include a company’s name, like “Ben & Jerry’s ice cream”, while non-branded keywords are broad, generic keywords that describe the category as a whole, like “chocolate chip ice cream”.

Google has made it very clear that you are completely allowed to bid on your competitor’s brand name as a keyword. As long as you don’t violate your competitor’s trademark in your ad copy, you are completely allowed to bid and advertise on your competitor’s brand name.

It is a great idea to bid on your own brand name. Doing this will allow you to dominate the messaging on your brand’s SERP and dictate what potential customers see about your brand.

It is 100% legal to bid on and advertise on your competitor’s brand name as a keyword. However, it is illegal to use a competitor’s brand name, logo, or slogan in your ad’s headline, description, or display URL.

Key Takeaways

Now that you know the difference between branded and non-branded keywords, the basics and pros and cons of brand bidding, and when it makes sense to bid on your competitor’s keywords, you have all the knowledge needed to decide if this strategy makes sense for your brand.

If you do decide to bid on your competitor’s brand name, be sure to: avoid trademark violations in your ad copy, clearly set your brand apart in your ad copy, set budget caps to prevent overspending, and monitor your competitor’s response.

Be sure to regularly check to see if any competitors are bidding on your branded keywords. If you find competitors are doing this, be sure to check and see if they are violating your trademarks. If they are, report the ad and get it taken down. If they are not, discuss with your team and find the proper retaliation strategy for you.

 
]]> How Long Does It Take for Google Ads to Work? https://www.digitalstrike.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-google-ads-to-work/ Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:50:39 +0000 https://www.digitalstrike.com/?p=6653 A quality search engine ad campaign takes a lot of resources. It’s only natural that you want to see results from all that hard work right away. The adage “good things take time” is true when it comes to new campaigns. Just how long, exactly, does it take for Google ads to work though?

How Do Google Ads Work?

Before discussing timeframes, it’s critical to understand just how Google ads work.

Think of Google as an ad marketplace and broker. Ads specialists create ads to display in Google search results. Advertisers then enter an ad auction to bid on target keywords so that their ads show up when users type certain queries into the search bar. Advertisers can set specific bid amounts so they do not overspend their daily budget too quickly. If advertisers win the bid, Google displays the ads in front of potential customers. Importantly, Google only charges when people click on the ads; this campaign is known as a pay-per-click, or PPC, campaign.

How Long Does It Take PPC to Work?

An infographic comparing how long it takes Bing Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Google Ads to work.

How long it takes PPC campaigns to work depends on what you define “work” as.

While many advertising agencies like to boast high impression numbers, Digital Strike thinks of these numbers more as vanity metrics—they may look nice, but they don’t lead to a better bottom line for business owners.

Better metrics to measure success by would be:

  1. Click-through rate (CTR), the rate at which people click on an ad) and
  2. Conversion rate (CVR), the rate at which people “convert” (take the action you want, such as making a purchase or signing up for an email list) on ads

How Long Do Google Ads Take to Work?

Person drinking coffee works on a laptop with Google Search pulled up.

Google Ads (Google Adwords) is the largest digital advertising platform on the planet, encompassing both the Google Display Network and Google Search Network. This size means there are more potential customers there than on other digital ad platforms… and also more competition. These factors (and more) can influence how long it takes for your campaign to work.

Most advertisers can log into their Google Ads account and see impressions roll in within a day or two of launching campaigns. Remember, though, that impressions are a poor key performance indicator (KPI). Instead, look for CTR and CVR.

CTR and CVR might only show up in low numbers at first—or they might not show up at all at first. That fact doesn’t necessarily mean that your campaign isn’t working. It might simply mean that Google is taking time to process your data.

After the first 48 hours, you may start to see some results roll in, but they may not be what you were hoping for. Again, those numbers are not necessarily cause for panic. That’s because, after launching a new campaign, Google enters what is known as the “learning phase.” This phase is when Google’s algorithm takes the time to better understand your target audience and better optimize your campaign to meet user intent. This phase typically lasts a week, but may take up the first month after launching a campaign.

After the learning phase, well-optimized campaigns start to see building momentum in the following few months, with many seeing the results they want roughly 3 months after launch.

Of course, online advertising is an ever-evolving game, which means your campaigns need to change too. Many ads specialists can fine tune good paid campaigns and make them even better within 6 to 12 months after launch.

How Long Do Bing Ads Take to Work?

A cell phone sits on a wooden table with Microsoft Bing showing.

Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) similarly takes some time to start working.

The Microsoft Advertising platform must review all ads before showing them to users to ensure full compliance with the platform’s policies. This review phase can take a few hours or days. As is the case with ads on Google, ads on Bing also take time to show up and for campaigns to optimize. Usually, the timeframe here is also about 3 months after launch.

How Long Do Meta Ads Take to Work?

A work laptop sits on a wooden desk with Facebook Meta Ads showing.

Meta Ads include ads running on any Meta platform and include Facebook ads and Instagram ads. Initial results from the ad campaign can show up within 1 week, but better insight into return on investment (ROI) can take between 2 to 4 weeks.

How Long Do LinkedIn Ads Take to Work?

Ads on the LinkedIn platform take roughly a day to get approved and then displayed. The learning phase for this platform is usually 10 days long with consequential results displaying anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks after launch.

What to Expect When You Launch a Google Ads Campaign

You’ve launched your first Google Ads campaign. Congrats!

Now what?

Here’s what you can expect.

Wait for Approval

Ads on Google, including search and display ads, require approval before being shown on the Search and Display Networks. Approval typically takes a single business day. Delays or outright denial of ads means you have to wait even longer for your campaign to launch.

Ensuring that your ads meet Google’s strict advertising policies can help you get your campaign back on track.

Enter the Learning Phase

After ads are approved, Google enters a learning phase. This phase is all about Google taking the time to learn how to best optimize your campaign, including targeting at the right time to the right audience. This phase can last from 1 to 4 weeks after launch.

Gather Data

The learning period is over. Now it’s time to truly analyze your campaign to see what is or is not working.

Metrics to consider when analyzing your campaign’s viability include:

  • Click-through rate (CTR), the rate at which people click on ads. What’s considered a “good” CTR can vary by industry. That said, the average CTR across all industries in the Google Ads Network is 3.17% for search ads and 0.46% for display ads.*
  • Conversion rate (CVR), the rate people take a desired action after clicking an ad. Like CTR, CVR varies by industry, but the average CVR is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads.*
  • Cost per click (CPC), how much it costs a campaign every time someone clicks on an ad. CPC varies wildly based on industry and vertical, although average CPC is $2.69 for search ads and $0.63 for display ads.*
  • Return on investment (ROI), a ratio [(Net profit/Cost of investment) x 100] that calculates profitability. A 0% ROI means a campaign is breaking even, with a higher number indicating profitability.
  • Return on ad spend (ROAS), a ratio (Revenue from ads/ad spend) determining revenue generated from advertising compared to how much was spent on ads. A 1.5 ROAS means the campaign is breaking even, with a higher number indicating profitability.
  • Quality Score, a score from Google that rates your ad quality compared to those from other advertisers. Scores range from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best score possible.

*Numbers refer to ads displayed in Google only. Numbers from WordStream.

Tweak the Campaign

Once you have enough data, you can optimize your campaign setup through methods like the following:

  • Conduct keyword research and adjust your target keywords, including your target keyword list and negative keyword list.
  • Reconsider intent. Are you showing the right ads to the right people based on intent? Conduct A/B tests to find if a new search query or a different demographic all together is worth targeting
  • Change the ad or landing page itself. You may have targeted everything correctly, but your ads just don’t resonate with users. Update or create a new ad or landing page to encourage conversions. That can mean crafting high-quality ad copy and graphics with no grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, or spelling errors and redesigning a landing page to have a more user-friendly appearance.
  • Find the right ad placement. Ads performance depends a lot on location. Meet your target audience where they are at and display your ads in locations that grab attention right away, no matter if you’re running search, paid, or social ads.
  • Reconsider your bidding strategy. Maybe you need to adjust your daily budget to stretch your ad spend or you need to increase your overall budget to get the results you want; don’t be afraid to experiment to see what works.
  • Find out if your ads are not showing. Review your chosen ad platform’s guidelines and policies to see if your campaigns are compliant.

Be Patient

Results take time! Remember, it can take weeks or even months for your Google ads to work.

If you’re feeling impatient, however, it never hurts to have a second set of eyes on your campaign.

Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing is the award-winning digital marketing agency who can help take your Google Ads campaign to the next level. We’ve run countless paid campaigns on all major digital advertising platforms; we’re ready to put that expertise to work on your campaign.

]]> PPC & SEO: Better Together https://www.digitalstrike.com/how-ppc-affects-organic-results/ Thu, 13 Mar 2025 12:00:52 +0000 https://digitalstriked.wpengine.com/?p=1108 A Digital Marketing Misconception

In digital marketing, one of the most common misunderstandings is that PPC campaigns directly influence organic search rankings. We hear it all the time: “If I spend more on Google Ads, will I rank better in organic listings?” The short answer? No. Google has a metaphorical wall between paid ads and organic search. Its algorithms are designed to surface the most relevant organic search results based on quality content, SEO strategy, and user experience—not based on your cost per click (CPC) or pay per click (PPC) budget.

That said, SEO and PPC do influence each other—just not in the way people often assume.

So… does PPC affect SEO? Not directly. Google’s mission is to deliver the best organic search results possible. Giving advertisers an SEO boost based on ad spend would compromise the integrity of search engine results pages (SERPs). While PPC ads don’t impact organic rankings directly, there are powerful, indirect ways these two strategies complement each other and can drive serious performance improvements when combined.

Let’s break it down.

When SEO and PPC Work Together

It’s not about “SEO vs. PPC.” It’s about how PPC campaigns and SEO campaigns can work in tandem to build a smarter, more effective long-term strategy. Using both unlocks a shared ecosystem of data, messaging, and insights that strengthens your overall online presence.

Here are just a few ways they complement each other:

1. Shared Keyword Strategy & PPC Data

Use specific keyword research data from PPC to inform your organic SEO content. By analyzing search terms, demographics, and click-through rates (CTR) from your paid search efforts, you can find out which target keywords convert best and build SEO content around them. Testing high-intent PPC keywords in paid ads first also helps validate them before building them into a long-term SEO strategy.

2. A/B Testing for Ad Copy & Landing Pages

Use your PPC efforts to test messaging, meta descriptions, and landing pages. The results from A/B testing can guide your SEO team to optimize organic landing pages, improve quality score, and increase engagement.

3. Increased Brand Visibility & CTR

When you appear in both paid ads and organic listings, your brand dominates more real estate on the SERP. This dual presence increases brand awareness and trust, and often lifts CTR for both your PPC ads and your organic search results.

4. More Reliable Metrics & Optimization Opportunities

PPC provides rapid feedback on relevant keyword performance, messaging, and user experience. Combine that with long-term data from SEO tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, and you get a full view of your digital marketing performance—from impressions and CPC to bounce rates and backlinks.

5. Better Return on Investment

Integrating PPC and SEO efforts gives you the flexibility to pursue both immediate results and long-term growth. Use PPC to drive quick conversion rates, while building up organic traffic and authority through content marketing, link building, and optimized web pages.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Whether you’re in ecommerce, real estate, or another competitive vertical, your marketing efforts are more powerful when SEO and PPC strategies are aligned. Using PPC ads to remarket to organic visitors, optimizing for high-quality search terms, and continuously analyzing performance metrics allows you to make better, faster decisions.

And let’s be honest—the more high-quality data you have, the better your results. When PPC and SEO work together, your brand is positioned to deliver a seamless user experience across paid and organic channels.

Final Thought: It’s Not Either/Or. It’s Yes, And…

Don’t fall into the trap of choosing between SEO and paid search. The real power comes from combining them with a cohesive, data-driven digital marketing strategy.

At Digital Strike, we’re experts in crafting search engine optimization and PPC strategies that not only coexist—they thrive together. Whether you’re optimizing content, testing new search ads, or building full-funnel PPC campaigns, we help you reach the right target audience, with the right messaging, at the right time.

Let’s make digital lightning strike for your brand. Contact us today for a free consultation.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

]]> When to Use Bing Ads vs Google Ads https://www.digitalstrike.com/when-to-use-bing-ads-vs-google-ads/ Wed, 12 Jun 2024 21:23:25 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=5294 Most online advertisers know about Bing Ads and Google Ads. What many digital advertisers might not know, however, is which of these ad platforms is best for their digital ad campaigns. Wondering how best to maximize your pay-per-click ad campaigns? Here’s the scoop on Bing Ads vs Google Ads.

About Bing Ads

Also known as:

  • Microsoft Ads
  • Microsoft Bing Ads
  • Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Bing, aka Bing, is Microsoft’s flagship search engine; it officially replaced Live Search in 2009. Bing claims a total of 3.43% of the worldwide search engine market share across all devices, which equals billions of global visits to the site every month. 3.96 billion to be exact (as of November 2023).

Bing is one of the most visited websites on the planet… meaning it is also one of the most valuable sites for advertisers. Having a Bing Ads account therefore offers a unique set of benefits and features to advertisers, including:

A laptop showing the Bing Ads/Microsoft Advertising/Microsoft Ads logo setting on a desk, set against a blue background.

Who Uses Bing?

The Bing user base is more defined than that of Google. Compared to Google users, Bing users are, on average:

  • Older, about 45+
  • More educated, with at least half having a college degree
  • Have a higher household income
  • More likely to be married
  • More likely to have a child living at home

Bing Advertising Stats

  • Average cost-per-click (CPC): $1.54 (all industries)
  • Average click-through rate (CTR): 1.25%
  • Average conversion rate (CVR): 2.94% (all industries)
  • Industries with the highest CVRs: Careers & Employment (6.81%), Financial Services & Insurance (5.57%), Real Estate (5.13%)

Numbers above are from an updated November 2023 report from WordStream.

About Google Ads

Also known as:

  • Google AdWords (formerly)

Google Search is the undisputed monarch of search engines. As of January 2024, it has a whopping 91.74% of the worldwide search engine market share across all devices. Heck, “to Google” has even become synonymous with “to look something up on a search engine.” It’s no wonder then that Google is the leading digital advertising platform, generating $237.86 billion in advertising revenue in 2023 alone. If that’s not winning the search and advertising games, we don’t know what is.

A giant like Google Ads can offer a lot to advertisers, including:

A laptop with Google Ads onscreen sits on a desk, set against a pink background.

Who Uses Google?

The vast majority of people on the internet use Google; in November 2023, Google experienced 175 billion worldwide visits total. That’s more than 20 times the number of people that live on Earth!

Most of Google’s user base tends to be on the younger side. The largest age group to use Google are those between the ages of 25 to 34, with the second-largest age group being between the ages of 18 to 24.

Google Advertising Stats

  • Average CPC on Search: $2.69 (all industries)
  • Average CTR: 0.86%
  • Average CVR: 3.75% (Search network, all industries), 0.77% (Display network, all industries)
  • Industries with the highest CVRs in Search: Dating & Personals (9.64%), Legal (6.98%), Consumer Services (6.64%)
  • Industries with the highest CVRs in Display: Dating & Personals (3.34%), Legal (1.84%), Employment Services (1.57%)

Numbers above are from an updated November 2023 report from WordStream.

When to Use Bing Ads vs Google Ads

We can’t tell you what to do. You’re your own advertiser. But we’ve found that the following general guidelines help us maximize both the Microsoft Advertising platform and Google Ads platform.

Two boxing gloves with the Bing Ads and Google Ads overtop each glove. Represents the concept of Google Ads vs Bing Ads.

When to Use Bing Ads

Bing Ads campaigns are often preferable when you:

  • Have an older target audience. The Bing user base tends to be older than Google’s.
  • Are selling higher-end services and products. Bing users are typically higher income than Google users are.
  • Want less competition. Bing has, on average, a lower CPC ($1.54, all industries) compared to Google ($2.69, the Search Network, all industries). It’s due to the fact that less people are advertising there than on Google.
  • Want a beginner-friendly platform. Our SEO experts find Bing’s ad interface to be easier to use, especially for beginners.
  • Need greater flexibility with mobile advertising. Microsoft Advertising allows for complex device targeting, meaning that Bing Ads offers better mobile ad targeting features than Google Ads does.

When to Use Google Ads

Google Ads campaigns are great when you:

  • Have a younger target audience. The Google user base skews younger than Bing’s does.
  • Want to reach the most number of people possible. It’s a numbers game: the vast majority of searchers use Google.
  • Are not selling luxury products. Google users are more likely than Bing users to have a lower household income.
  • Want to test out the latest gadgets and gizmos. Google is usually quicker to release new products and services, meaning you might be more limited in your tool choices when using only Bing.
  • Want to improve brand visibility. Simply putting your brand in front of a greater number of people can boost visibility. Bing does not have the sheer number of users that Google has.

Chart describing when advertisers should use Bing Ads vs Google Ads.

Again, we cannot stress this point enough: the above points are merely guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Plenty of other factors besides ad platform can affect ad performance and conversion rates, like ad copy, landing page copy, ad placement, industry, and so much more that we literally cannot list them all here.

Need Help with Your Paid Search Campaigns?

Knowing when to use Bing Ads vs Google Ads is only part of what makes a campaign successful. Knowing how to execute campaigns on each platform requires a varied skill set, time, and other resources. If you need help with Google Ads, Bing Ads (or, heck, even LinkedIn Ads and Facebook Ads), give the digital marketing experts at Digital Strike a buzz. We know how to successfully run PPC ad campaigns, including search ads and display ads. That’s not all we know, though. We also know remarketing campaigns, SEO strategies, social media marketing, and much, much more.

]]> Geofencing Marketing — What is It and Do You Need It? https://www.digitalstrike.com/geofencing-marketing-what-is-it/ Tue, 04 Jun 2024 16:11:10 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=5273 Your brand and services are great. Your search and content marketing campaigns are killer. So why isn’t your business seeing the growth it deserves? The answer could be because you’re looking too far beyond your own digital backyard, so to speak. Clearly define your backyard (and send out those relevant targeted ads to the right people at the right time) with geofencing marketing.

What is Geofencing Marketing?

Two geometric outlines overlay a Google Maps layout to represent the concept of geofencing marketing.

 

Geofencing marketing, sometimes called geo fencing or geo-fencing, is a type of location-based marketing that marries the digital and real world; it allows advertisers to meet potential customers where they are at, literally.

A form of programmatic advertising, geofencing marketing works by establishing a custom virtual boundary, or fence, around a specific geographic area in the real world. Mobile devices with location-enabled mobile apps can provide data (GPS, WiFi, RFID Bluetooth, etc.) to marketers and advertisers. Marketers can then use this data to set their ads to only appear to potential customers that enter this fence. Entering these fences can trigger an activity, like sending push notifications or displaying search ads when mobile users search target queries, like “restaurants near me.” This form of advertising therefore relies on phone and app permissions with real-time data tracking.

Unlike radius targeting (more on that below), geofencing is incredibly granular. With it, advertisers can create custom fences rather than simply creating a radius around an area. This way, advertisers can create a geofence that includes only what they want, and nothing they don’t. In other words, geofences can be as broad or as specific as advertisers would like. It all depends on what type of ad campaign they’d like to run.

Geofencing Example #1

A young person at the park looks at their phone. A restaurant icon floats above the phone, representing the concept of geofencing marketing for a restaurant.

Say you own a restaurant (yummy). It’s in close proximity to several popular locations in a bustling downtown area. Depending on the ad platform you use, you can create a unique geofence that includes not just your restaurant, but also nearby locations, like a park where people are going to work up their appetite. Your geofence excludes a nearby street, however, that contains condemned buildings and, therefore, doesn’t have any potential customers. Once you establish this geofence, you can run targeted mobile ads at peak dinner time hours to people who are physically near your establishment.

Geofencing Example #2

A generic “distracted boyfriend” meme, where a heterosexual couple holding hands passes by a beautiful woman. The man turns his head away from his girlfriend to look at the passing woman, much to his girlfriend’s upset. Over the passing woman is the text “Coupons for your business.” Over the man is “Customers near your competitor.” Over the girlfriend is “Your competitor.” Meme represents the concept of using geofencing marketing to draw customers away from competitors and into your own business.

You’re still a restaurant owner in this example, but now you have a rival who is stealing your hungry customers. If you’re feeling mischievous, you can set up a geofence around your competitor’s location. Once people get near enough to your competitor’s store, you can target them with coupons for your business, drawing them away from your rival and into your own doors.

What is Geotargeting? And How Does It Differ from Geofencing?

 

Example of two separate geofences around physical locations.

Geotargeting is another form of location-based audience targeting, although it differs slightly from geofencing. Geofencing is all about advertising based on specific location data. Geotargeting allows advertisers to refine an ad campaign’s target audience by enhancing demographic metrics with specific location data. In other words, geotargeting allows advertisers to create a target audience using not just physical location (based on data like GPS and IP address), but also other data points, like age, gender, and shopping habits.

Radius targeting is a specific form of geotargeting that allows advertisers to establish a radius around a certain area, like a zip code or city. This form of targeting does not allow advertisers to exclude certain areas inside the radius.

Geotargeting Example

A woman browsing her phone receives a targeted ad/push notification.

Say you’re a business owner with a charming boutique that stocks women’s clothing and accessories. You can set up a one-mile radius around your business. But you don’t stop there; you run a comprehensive geotargeting campaign and make sure that your ads not only reach people who are in that radius, but who are also women, between the ages of 18 to 35, and have a shopping history focusing on fashion and makeup.

What are the Benefits of Geofencing Marketing and Geotargeting?

Still on the fence about geofencing and geotargeting? Don’t be. Some of the benefits of incorporating location-targeting tech into digital marketing efforts can include:

Don’t think that the size of your business will limit your potential with location-targeting tech. An organization of any size can benefit from advertising using location data.

Small businesses that offer location-based services, like mom-and-pop restaurants and non-chain retail stores, for instance, cannot physically sell products to customers in a state away. So, why should they waste ad dollars on them? These businesses can directly benefit from adding location-based parameters to their online ad campaigns.

Larger businesses can also make use of geotargeting and geofencing technology. These businesses can target people with different ads based on geographic location. An ad that does well in Toronto, for example, might perform much differently in London. By running different campaigns with different copy and imagery, these companies can tailor their messaging to the unique needs and wants of consumers in various regions. These customized ads can offer greater personalization and relevancy, which can boost overall conversion rates.

How to Set Up Location Targeting in Google Ads

If you’re running a nationwide campaign in Google Ads, here are the steps you can take to add a country-wide perimeter to your campaign:

  1. Go to your Google Ads account.
  2. Click “Campaigns.”
  3. In this section’s sidebar menu, select “Campaigns.”
  4. You should see “Campaigns,” “Ad Groups,” and “Ads.” Click “Campaigns.”
  5. Select “Settings.”
  6. Select “Locations” and choose the country you will target with your campaign.
  7. Hit “Save.”

Of course, many companies run campaigns on a smaller, more local scale. The Google Ads platform lets businesses set up location targeting for smaller municipalities within a country (such as on the state or city level in the US) or even lets them create a custom geofence down to a one-mile radius.

Adding Geofencing Ads to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

There is no way around it: geofencing is an incredibly important marketing tool in the age of online and mobile marketing. It allows for enhanced ad targeting in a way that other marketing tools can’t easily replicate. When you need help with geofencing marketing campaigns, don’t leave it up to chance or guesswork. Contact the experts who have years of experience helping clients with geofencing advertising (and SEO, and social media advertising, and much, much more).

]]> Top 5 Google Ads Recommendations You Should Re-Consider Before Implementing https://www.digitalstrike.com/top-5-google-ads-recommendations-you-should-re-consider-before-implementing/ Fri, 26 Apr 2024 14:27:14 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=4894 Google Ads recommendations may seem like shortcuts to success, but blindly following these recommendations can sometimes lead to wasteful spending and little to no ROI.

At Digital Strike, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses of every size in almost every vertical with their paid search campaigns… So you can that say we’ve learned a thing or two about Google’s ad recommendations—including when NOT to use them.

Let’s explore five common types of recommendations from Google that demand careful scrutiny before implementation and the reasons why.

1. Adding Recommended Keywords

Google recommends keywords for two reasons: To enhance optimization scores and to increase ad spend.

Optimization score is somewhat of a fake metric that Google created to more or less suggest to inexperienced advertisers that they should use a variety of the ad variations Google offers. In doing this, you are expanding your reach across all channels like video, search, display, shopping, etc., while ultimately spending more money.

Why you should re-consider:

Rather than use these recommendations, it would be advised to dig deeper into what Google is suggesting. Google is a big proponent of running broad match keywords and—while the targeting for broad match has improved—it still isn’t always the best route. This is because broad match casts a wide net and, therefore, pulls in some terms that might not make sense for the business goals.

For example, let’s say you’re running ads for an assisted living community. Based on search history, Google is able to see that the large majority of searchers looking in the senior living realm are price shopping for affordable options. Therefore, some highly trafficked terms include “affordable apartments,” “cheap senior housing,” “government-assisted senior housing,” etc. Google then puts these terms into the recommended new keyword area for you to use in ads.

However, the problem with this is that the assisted living facility may not want to show up for these terms because it’s not what they offer at their business. This would result in wasted ad spend and poor Google ads account performance.

2. Increase Budget Based on Projections

If you do not have a high conversion rate, Google may suggest adding budget based on projections that forecast how many clicks you could receive if you increase spend by certain dollar amounts (this is not always the answer, though).

Why you should re-consider:

Yes, there are times when you truly aren’t showing because you aren’t spending enough to compete.

However, before you take Google’s suggestion to increase the budget, you need to first take a look at the impression share lost to budget—or Search Lost IS (Budget)—in order to determine if the actual spend really is the issue.

This metric gives a percentage of how many times your ads didn’t show because the campaign is limited by budget and is really the only time when you should consider increasing spend.

Google’s goal is to ramp up your spend to dominate search results, but that doesn’t mean you will get more conversions, especially if you are not losing budget to impressions.

If that is what is happening, then other factors need to be re-evaluated, such as keyword relevancy, ad quality, and landing page experience.

3. Switching Bidding Strategy

Google Adwords offers a number of bid strategies to use based on campaign goals. Here are a few examples:

  • If you want to drive more traffic to your website, you should use the Maximize Clicks bid strategy.
  • If you want to get the most conversions at the best price, Maximize Conversions or Target CPA bidding are the best options.
  • Target Impression Share tells Google how often and where you want ads to show in search results, regardless of spend. This is usually best used for brand campaigns that want to ensure their name is front and center for all searches done using their name.
  • If you have the opportunity to tie back revenue from the ad groups running, Target ROAS (return on ad spend) or Maximize Conversion Value are good strategies to utilize.

Why you should re-consider:

Google recommends changing bid strategies by calculating how much more you will spend to use those strategies. They aren’t taking into consideration the goal of the search campaign or budget limitations the advertiser might have.

When you do switch a bid strategy based on Google’s recommendation, you will often find less engagement and increased spending. That is the opposite of what most advertisers are looking to achieve and can damage the way campaigns are serving.

As a result, Google’s algorithm goes back into a learning phase, halting progress and usually missing opportunities that can increase sales or leads.

4. Turning on Google Search Partners Setting

Search Partners are a collection of websites that partner with Google to show ads and free product listings beyond regular search results. They extend ads to hundreds of non-Google websites, as well as on YouTube. These ads can show on site directory pages or other pages related to a person’s search.

Why you should re-consider:

The challenge with search partners is that the sites where ads appear are often not the type of sites you always want to have your ads on.

For example, they can show on parked domains or sites that are not related to the actual intent of the search. Most of the time, these sites eat up a lot of budget and have poor campaign performance with less qualified leads.

5. Applying Broad Match Types

Google has made a lot of changes to the way that broad match functions. As a result, they are trying to get more and more advertisers to use broad match because they feel the searches are more targeted based on user behavior and intent.

Why you should re-consider:

While it’s important to test the efficacy of using broad match, it often results in a lot of wasted traffic.

Broad match is good for campaigns that struggle to spend, are in niche markets, or are in heavily saturated markets; it really depends on the goal of the ads campaign.

However, if campaigns are not struggling and the lead volume is increasing at a healthy pace, it makes more sense to focus on more targeted match types like exact or phrase. These match types give you more control over what search terms you want to show up for and when.

Let Us Help With Your CPC Campaigns!

Smart pay-per-click (PPC) management is the key to success. We don’t throw darts and hope one sticks, and we certainly don’t just follow Google’s recommendations without careful scrutiny. We have proven strategies that we’ve developed over years of experience to drive conversion rates up and conversion costs down.

In addition to PPC, we also offer the following digital marketing services:

Contact our experts today to see how we can empower your business with the right opportunities to grow.

]]> 7 Programmatic Advertising Benefits https://www.digitalstrike.com/7-programmatic-advertising-benefits/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 19:25:03 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=4707 Adsolutely the Best Way to Advertise Online?

Your time is valuable. Maximize your time (and get those sweet, sweet conversions) by realizing the benefits of programmatic advertising.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising, also known as programmatic buying, is automated ad bidding, selling, buying, and placement.

The Short Version: Programmatic advertising works by using machine learning. Namely, advanced ad tech allows for real-time optimization of digital ad campaigns through automatically adjusting ad spend, ad placement, and retargeting audiences. This way, campaigns are more likely to show the right ad to the right audience at the right time for the right price, giving this artificial intelligence-powered digital advertising method a substantial edge over traditional media advertising.

The Long Version: Programmatic ads use automation to maximize ad spend. Here is what advertisers have to manually do:

  • Set the budget and maximum CPM
  • Create the ads (optional, as programmatic advertising also allows for automated ad buying)
  • Choose a desired ad space
  • Set the target audience and a few other key parameters

Once these parameters are set, the algorithm on the advertiser’s chosen advertising platform lets the campaign engage in real-time bidding (RTB) with other digital marketing campaigns. If a campaign wins the bid for a chosen ad space, the campaign’s ads are displayed in a highly coveted space in front of the campaign’s target audience.

A human shakes hands with a robot.

4 Major Programmatic Advertising Platforms

When someone talks about programmatic advertising platforms, they are likely referring to one of four major types of platforms that enable programmatic services.

  1. Data Management Platforms (DMPs) – DMPs are platforms that allow for the building and management of audience profiles. Popular DMPs include Google Marketing Platform and Audience Studio by Salesforce.
  2. Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) – DSPs are brands and buyers, offering a platform to advertisers that allow bidding on ad inventory. Popular DSPs include Facebook Ads Manager (Meta Ads Manager) and MediaMath.
  3. Supply-Side Platforms, or Sell-Side Platforms (SSPs) – SSPs are sellers, and they let publishers sell their ads to the highest bidder. Popular SSPs include Google Ad Manager and Xander (AppNexus).
  4. Ad Exchanges – Ad exchanges exist in a space between DSPs and SSPs, allowing brands and sellers to swap and sell ad inventory. Popular ad exchanges include OpenX and PubMatic.

7 Major Programmatic Advertising BENEFITS (and 1 Major Flaw)

Programmatic advertising benefits include:

  1. (Almost) never missing out. You may be fast, but bots are faster. Automation means never losing out on split-second bids on premium inventory and ad space.
  2. Saved time. Automation reduces the time it takes to buy, sell, and place ads, leaving you more valuable hours to spend on optimizing other parts of your campaign.
  3. Reduce guesswork. Programmatic ad buying allows campaigns to make real-time data-driven decisions (aka, RTB) every single time, leaving guesswork during the ad buying process at the door.
  4. Easy contextual targeting. Programmatic buying allows for contextual targeting, making it easy to adjust your target audience based on your chosen KPIs (key performance metrics).
  5. Automated retargeting = better visibility. Automated audience targeting capabilities means that your chosen demographic sees only relevant ads.
  6. Better visibility = saving money. Only showing the most relevant ads to the most relevant audience can drive conversions, reduce risk, and reduce lost ad dollars.
  7. Enhanced scalability. Automation makes it much easier to scale campaigns than with traditional bidding.

Financial benefits of programmatic advertising represented by a cat in a tie typing on a keyboard in front of a pile of money.

The automated process of buying and placing ads comes with a lot of benefits. But programmatic buying isn’t perfect. Perhaps the largest downside of programmatic advertising is ad fraud. Display advertising platforms, especially private marketplaces, have well-documented issues with fraud and lying to advertisers about metrics and ad impressions. According to Statista, digital ad fraud in 2021 led to a global loss totaling roughly $65 billion USD, making it a major concerns for digital advertisers. While there is no easy one-size-fits-all solution to this issue, using ad fraud detection tools (e.g., DoubleVerify) and ad verification tools (e.g., Integral Ad Science) can help prevent ad fraud in your programmatic campaigns.

Best Programmatic Advertising Practices

Need help with programmatic media buying and developing robust marketing campaigns? Contact the digital marketing strategy experts at Digital Strike – Targeted Marketing to realize programmatic advertising benefits. We can help you run effective programmatic campaigns to help you meet your advertising goals and give you the leads your company needs to grow.

]]> All About the Click-Through Rate – CTR Explained https://www.digitalstrike.com/all-about-the-click-through-rate-ctr-explained/ Thu, 08 Sep 2022 19:05:06 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=3453 You need benchmarks to determine the success of your paid ad campaigns. One such metric? Click-through rate, otherwise known as CTR. At a glance, CTR can tell you not just if your marketing efforts are successful, but it can also tell you just how successful they are.

Understanding CTR — and how to improve it — can mean the difference between long-term return on investments (ROI) and running in the red.

What is CTR?

Whether your company’s target market fits the B2B or B2C mold, CTR is an important metric. You can calculate it in a few different ways, depending on the type of digital marketing campaign you are running, including the following:

Today, though, we’re going to focus on click-throughs for Google Ads and Bing Ads.

What is a Good Click-Through Rate?

Defining CTR can be a little ✨nebulous✨; however, most people generally put CTR in the following three categories:

  • High CTR – Any CTR that is higher than the average CTR.
  • Average CTR – A common or expected CTR for your industry or channel.
  • Low CTR – A click-through rate that is lower than the expected CTR.

No matter what is considered “good” for your industry or channel, just remember that the higher the CTR, the better.

Click-Through Rates by Industry

What counts as a “good CTR” can vary vastly depending on your industry and the type of campaign you are running (again: things can get nebulous here). That said, across various industries and platforms:

Good Click-Through Rates for Google and Bing

Google and Microsoft Bing are the two most popular search engines by volume, making them popular platforms for search advertisers. So, just what do click-through rates look like for these platforms? Across all industries, the average for search is between:

How to Get Higher Click-Through Rates on Google and Bing

High click-through rates mean more successful (and more profitable) online advertising campaigns. If you’re noticing lower-than-average click-through rates, the following methods may help your PPC efforts—and bottom line—improve.

1. Create a Stronger Call to Action (CTA)

As the name implies, a call to action asks users to take a certain action. It can be a button, an email subscription box, or something else. For Google and Bing ads, you can add your CTA anywhere, including within one of the available headlines (which we believe is most effective).

No matter what yours looks like, there are plenty of ways to make any CTA stronger, such as the following methods:

  • For both Display and Search ads, include stronger action words while keeping everything short and sweet. For example, try “Save Money Now!” instead of “Learn more about ways to spend less money.”
  • For Display ads, create a more attractive design for your CTA, with more eye-catching colors like green or red
  • Reconsider the placement of your CTA, or consider making it sticky, if you are running Display ad campaigns. After all, an ad is no good if your audience can’t see it

2. Make Sure to Segment Your Target Audience Properly

If your ads are being seen by the wrong audience, your campaigns may as well be dead in the water. And no amount of money will save them.

The key to proper audience segmentation? It starts with identifying user intent.

What keywords are your audience members using on Google or Bing to find the services or products that they need, relative to where they reside in the buying cycle? And do these terms align with those that were used to build your campaigns.

If the answer is no, there’s your issue. Dig no further. This means that your ads are being presented to people who probably have no reason to engage your brand.

3. Create Themes from Ad Groups

The segmentation of your target audience begins and ends with keywords, but how do you best organize what could legitimately be hundreds of terms when it’s all said and done, especially when they all reflect varying levels of intent?

The answer is ad groups.

Both Google and Bing’s pay-per-click platforms allow users to create ad groups using themes centered around similar keywords. The benefit of creating themed ad groups is twofold:

  1. It is easier to write ad copy around a subset of terms that fall under one topical umbrella than it is to write copy about a wide variety of keywords that don’t share much common ground.
  2. It increases the likelihood that your ads are more relevant to your audience’s search intent. This relevancy can both decrease your campaign’s costs (no one is clicking on an irrelevant ad that promises a poor experience) and improve click-through rate (the people who do see the ads are more likely to click them) at the same time.

4. Improve Quality Score

See how you measure up to the competition with Quality Score when using Google Ads. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), you can quickly assess the health of your campaign at an individual keyword level. According to Google, this score is calculated using the following metrics:

  • Expected CTR – How well a particular paid ad is expected to perform
  • Ad relevancy – How relevant your ad is to your chosen audience’s intent
  • Landing page experience – The strength of the relationship your landing page has to both the corresponding keyword and ad

If your Quality Score is above average, then congratulations! You’re running an amazing campaign that will likely produce the enviable combination of low costs-per-click and above-average CTRs.

If you’re getting average or below-average marks, well, don’t worry. There are ways you can update your ads and landing pages to earn a higher score (and get higher clickthrough rates).

Besides taking steps to improve CTR, you can also update your landing page and revise your copy (both of which you can learn more about directly below).

5. Don’t Neglect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One of the best things you can do for your campaigns is to optimize your landing page for the right keywords. Crucially, make sure to use those keywords the correct number of times. In other words: don’t keyword stuff your web pages. (Leave the stuffing for Thanksgiving and Oreos.)

An optimized page using SEO best practices — quality, topical content, fast load times, clear messaging, etc. — leads to higher Quality Scores, which lead to better ad performance. Better performance from your ads results in more clicks from the right people, who, in turn, provide your company with more growth opportunities through higher conversion rates.

Bonus Tip: If you choose to have your landing page indexed, good SEO practices may even help your page become more authoritative and perform better on Bing and Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning you could earn some organic traffic as well as paid. A real win-win!

6. Revise Your Ad Copy

From headlines — Google and Bing both allow up to three per ad — to the body text, the copy of your PPC ad is critical to getting people interested in what you have to say. More interested people’s eyeballs on your ads mean higher clickthrough rates. Revising your ad copy can take many forms, including:

  • Crafting compelling calls to action for use in the second or third headline fields and in the ad body
  • Using your target keywords in the first headline field and in the ad body
  • Leveraging unique characters (!, @, $, &, *, #) to highlight offers, promotions, specials, etc.
  • Using everyday language rather than overly flowery language (state your message plainly)

Clearly, there are lots of ways to spruce up your copy. But which way is best? One method to see which copy works best is to use A/B tests. They can help you better determine what words and overall tone will work best with your chosen demographic.

7. Monitor Bidding Practices To Ensure Ad Position

Location really is everything, whether you’re running Search or Display Ads.

The right keywords act as a sturdy foundation, and the right ad copy provides the curb appeal. But the third part of the equation is making sure you’re bidding effectively with your PPC platform of choice to effectively promote your ads.

Google and Bing each have a vested interest in showing what they deem to be the best-performing ads highest on the page, even if it means placing your ad above that of a competitor who has shown a willingness to bid more money for a click.

This is where the work to improve your campaign quality really pays off, but be mindful that you’re not pricing yourself out of the market for that click by bidding low. Use the tools at your disposal within your Google or Bing Ads account to monitor what the competition is doing and then act accordingly.

8. Use Ad Extensions

The more robust an ad, the more likely Google and Bing are to show it as much as possible.

This is code for using as many of the built-in features that each platform provides. And no feature has as much of a positive effect on CTR than ad extensions.

Google and Bing both offer ad extensions, and they come in many forms, each with its own little way of promoting aspects of your business.

Some of the most commonly used ad extensions include:

  • Sitelinks (opportunities for users to visit a multiple page of your site from one single ad)
  • Location (local businesses can integrate Google Ads with Google Business Profile to show important address information)
  • Callouts (non-clickable list of unique business descriptors — free delivery, open 24 hours, etc.)
  • Snippets (lists of related attributes pertaining to a business — amenities, brands, models, etc.)
  • Image (attach striking visuals to your ads to showcase projects, products, offices, etc.)

Using these extensions may improve your ad’s visibility and credibility, meaning potentially higher CTRs for you.

👏Get👏Better👏Click-Through Rates👏Today👏

A second set of eyes is always welcome. We (respectfully) could be your second set of eyes on any troublesome campaigns you have on your hands. With our team of experts on your side, you can turn around your online campaigns and see the conversions you’ve been aiming for.

]]> Digital Lead Generation Analysis https://www.digitalstrike.com/digital-lead-generation-analysis/ Wed, 27 Jul 2022 16:57:50 +0000 https://digitalstristg.wpenginepowered.com/?p=3369 Say it with us: information is king.

In order to better optimize your services and lead generation marketing campaigns, you’ll need all sorts of data, including data on your new leads, or people showing interest in your product, services, or brand. How you analyze those leads, though, can impact how you view and adjust your current campaigns and services.

This analysis can mean the difference between high conversion rates and letting high-quality leads go to waste!

Lead Generation in the Online World

Lead generation, or lead gen, in traditional marketing means converting consumer interest into a sale. In other words, traditional lead generation tactics focus on leading potential customers through the sales funnel/along the buyer’s journey.

In digital marketing, effective lead generation collects user contact information (the lead) online. Simply put, digital lead generation strategies are more about collecting user information and data points. Online lead nurturing therefore often involves an effort to drive traffic to an optimized landing page with a compelling CTA, or call to action. This CTA will encourage the target audience to willingly submit contact information.

Website traffic can be obtained through either organic or paid. You gain organic traffic with effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, where you craft relevant content for a target demographic using a chosen keyword. You gain paid traffic through pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, such as paid social media marketing campaigns that place an attractive ad in front of a chosen demographic in the hopes of getting click-throughs to a landing page, which could generate leads.

How to Analyze Leads

There are two primary lenses with which you can analyze your leads: quantitative data and qualitative data. Both metrics are necessary to determine which leads could be potential customers (aka qualified leads).

Quantitative Data

Quantitative data is easily measurable, with hard facts and numbers. Types of quantitative data include:

  • Number of website visitors (website traffic volume)
  • How long someone spends on your landing page
  • How many people engage with you (engagement rate) on social media platforms
  • How many people bought your product or signed up for your service
  • Number of job applications for an open position

Qualitative Data

Qualitative data is harder to define, as it is not backed by hard numbers the way quantitative data is. Types of qualitative data include:

  • Surveys asking people for opinions on a service or product
  • Online reviews about products or user experience (the text, not just the numerical “3 out of 5 stars”)

Why You Need Both Qualitative and Quantitative Data

The best approach is a well-rounded one; that’s why analyzing leads with both qualitative and quantitative data can give you a better perspective of your current lead generation efforts… and how successful those efforts may be.

For example, quantitative data (like website traffic and time spent on a page) can tell you if people are visiting your website and how long they are staying on the site. Analyzing these data points may reveal that lots of people are visiting your site, but they are not staying long at all. That means they are less likely to convert to successful leads.

So, these data points will tell you if there is a problem, but they will not tell you why the problem exists. Now you are unable to determine why someone is or is not interested in your website or why they are not staying long enough to convert.

That is where qualitative data can come in handy. Social media comments or online user reviews may reveal that the users are frustrated with their page experience: the website does not load fast enough, so they bounce. This information lets you know that you need to optimize site speed. Once you do that, you may then notice an increase in the amount of time users stay on your page, which in turn may generate more leads.

While it’s important to use tools that help you gather quantitative data, like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, it’s also important to make sure that you are gathering qualitative data points, too. You can do so by sending out surveys in email marketing campaigns and allowing comments on your company’s social media accounts (and responding to these comments, too).

Online Lead Gen Relies on Effective Data Analysis

Without quantitative data, you would have no idea if a problem exists in the first place. But without qualitative data, you would not understand what causes the problem in the first place… meaning you would not know how to address the problem effectively. With both types of data, however, you can better identify problems and their root causes (and solve them!) in an efficient manner.

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