Websites, SEO strategies, keywords, blogs, and social media posts are all great ways to command online attention, inform potential buyers, and drive traffic to your online pages — but they are only part of a successful growth marketing strategy. For business owners looking to expand their reach with customers looking for what they have to offer, it’s critical to go beyond this baseline of organic marketing tactics and include other growth strategies in the mix.
Enter Pay-Per-Click ads and content offers.
Here’s a breakdown of these powerful marketing tools to help you better understand how they fit in with your current campaigns.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads
Organic (aka free) online resources allow you to cast a wide marketing net — but paid-per-click (PPC) ads offer an opportunity to really zero in on your customer demographic/persona based on their location, interests, and other factors.
Create your pay-per-click ads by targeting specific:
- Products
- Services
- Problems/Solutions
- Goals
Once again, it’s time to put yourself in the mindset of your customer. Ask yourself if a single person clicked on your ad and made a specific purchase, what would it be? Then write the ad for that.
Keywords Matter When Creating PPC Ads
Keywords absolutely come into play when developing PPC ads. Websites and blogs often use general industry keywords — and it’s okay to use some of the keywords and phrases you’ve gathered during your previous research. However, it’s important to dig deeper when creating your ad to pick the keywords that will resonate best with what your ad is promoting.
Don’t target hundreds of keywords for an ad (even if Google gives you a TON of suggested keywords). Instead, focus on about 10-30 total keywords to hit your ad sweet spot. Also, when creating your PPC ad, avoid using broad match. Google describes broad match as:
“A keyword match type allows your ad to show on searches that are related to the meaning of your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the keyword terms. This allows you to reach more searches than with exact and phrase matches.”
Showing up on searches that don’t contain the keyword terms can mean low-quality leads and even lower conversion rates. Phase match or exact match usually gets you better results. There will be fewer clicks (not a bad thing since you are paying per click!) — but they will be higher quality.
Create a Budget For Your PPC Ads
Of course, when running a business of any size, budget matters. It’s essential to go into the PPC ads process with a designated budget allocation to ensure you don’t overspend on a campaign. Start with a small budget to get an idea of the search quality. Also, check the search terms regularly and add/exclude terms as applicable. Finally, direct the clicks to a targeted landing page with a clear call-to-action.
Pro Tip
If you’re running a content offer, creating a PPC ad campaign around that offer is an excellent use of marketing dollars!
Lead Magnets (aka Content Offers)
What is a lead magnet? Excellent question! A content offer or lead magnet is something an online visitor will find useful that you give away for free in exchange for the visitor’s contact information. Content offers a great way to generate warm leads (both paid and organic) of individuals that are interested in something your company provides.
Lead Magnets Help Get Your Business on The Radar of Prospective Customers
Lead magnets deliver an excellent opportunity to get your company on a prospective customer’s radar by providing useful information or helping to solve a problem they may have. The content should outline how your company’s services and products directly resolve customer challenges, concerns, and issues.
Again, it’s vital to put yourself in the mindset of your buyers. Think about what you can offer that they’ll be so interested in or excited about that they will voluntarily provide their very valuable email address and phone number.
Some potential content offer lead magnet ideas may include:
- eBooks
- Online calculator
- Checklists
- Infographics
- Cheatsheets
The process itself is relatively straightforward. Users complete an online form with their contact information; from there, they are directed to a thank you page where they can download the offer — or you can opt to send the offer link in an automated email to verify it’s a valid email address before they can access the content.
Tips to Make Your Lead Magnet Campaigns a Success
When creating your content offer, always remember:
Looks Matter
First and foremost, make sure your lead magnet looks good. No, it doesn’t have to be an artistic masterpiece, but it should be visually compelling and on-brand, so anyone seeing it knows it’s from your business.
Follow Up
Call your leads…like, an actual phone call that includes a phone and a real-live human voice. Email is great, but it can only take you far; you’ll convert more of your leads into customers if you’re willing to pick up the phone.
Include a Call-To-Action
Be sure to include a call-to-action within the content offer itself that guides these prospects directly back to you again. Include your logo and contact information to make it easy for them to see who you are — and how to get in touch with you.
Ditch the Pitch
Your content offer should provide value and be useful to potential customers — not just be another unwanted sales pitch. In fact, you’re better off talking very little about your business in the copy (yes, really).
Monitor Success
Use tracking on the links within the content offer, so you can evaluate its effectiveness and overall results.
Keep it Fresh
Generally, a new content offer performs best in the first 90 days, so periodically changing out the offer can keep prospects interested and engaged over a longer period of time.
Green Tulip Design Help You Generate Leads
Let Green Tulip Design create a killer lead magnet content offer or PPC ad campaign for your business. Schedule a time to connect — we’d love to talk with you about it!
