Targeting Buyers With PPC Advertising

PPC advertising, done correctly, allows you to reach a valuable, ready-to-buy set of customers at a point-in-time when they are actively seeking information about your product or service. And since they are fully engaged, and looking for help in selecting products and services and businesses to meet their needs, you must have your business front and center when they go looking.

Targeting buyers with PPC advertising

Targeting the RIGHT keywords gives you access to people who have already “kicked the tires” and are looking for a contracting company to hire. Keyword phrases like “Home remodeling companies Philadelphia, Pa” are much closer to the buying phase than people searching “remodel my kitchen” probably are, and you are not even sure what the searcher’s intent is with such a vague search term like that as they may be looking to do the work themselves. But someone looking for a company to do the work is exactly the type of searcher you want to find your page.

So PPC advertising, or SEM, really is more than advertising, it’s thinking like the consumer would who is ready to buy, and then figuring out what words they would use to find you.

Done right, PPC marketing helps you seize the moment – selling to the customer NOW! To seize that moment in time, your ad copy has to inform, educate, and sell; the landing page has to create interest, provide information, and answer enough of the reader’s questions so that the user takes the next step and either calls, emails or visits your location.

The job of your PPC campaign is to deliver ready-to-buy customers or clients to your virtual “doorstep” or “online showroom“. Commonly referred to as “leads”, but these are very special “leads,” because by the time the consumer has taken the action to contact you, they are just about ready to spend their money.

You then have the opportunity to convert these “potential” and interested customers to sales. Because advertising with PPC gives you a chance to inform consumers and answer frequently asked questions, customers that follow-through and contact you are also “pre-screened,” motivated prospects that are just about ready to make a purchase.

Consequently, the typical conversion rate to a sale following contact by a PPC user is high since they purposefully clicked a known advertisement seeking more information.

So remember, to win at PPC, you have to think like the shopper, and use their words as the basis to your ads. The best way to do this is to ask people exactly what terms they used to find you, then practice your ad copy using their own search terms. Good luck!