“Harness The Power of PPC and SEO for Insane Landing Page Results” Webinar Wrap-Up

Harness The Power of PPC and SEO for Insane Landing Page Results from Hanapin Marketing

In the beginning of February, I registered and attended a webinar hosted by Raven Tools and Hanapin Marketing. The topic of the hour was on how to leverage PPC and SEO together to supercharge your landing pages for better conversions. PPC and SEO tend to be seen as laying on opposite ends of the marketing strategy spectrum, and this can be true depending on what you are trying to achieve. But it shouldn’t always be a matter of which tactic should I use? – use them both! A few years back, we wrote about a few instances where PPC and SEO can work as a synergetic team or as cannibalistic enemies. This webinar actually builds on this by shedding some light on specific ways you can cohesively build a PPC and SEO strategy where the two efforts are complementary and improve the overall campaign.

The formatting of webinars are usually extremely helpful for me since I tend to be a visual learner. And as a Raven Tool user, it’s always great to visually see new ways I can utilize the tool within real digital marketing examples. But not errbody got time for that, so I’ll be covering all the important bases and sharing the useful tips I learned by watching “Harness The Power of PPC and SEO for Insane Landing Page Results”.

Creating a interconnected PPC and SEO strategy

• Spot the easy wins – by using Google Webmaster Tools, you can identify keywords that are converting well but have few impressions. People are liking what they see when they do see it, so these would be great keywords to start targeting with PPC to help bring your brand to more viewers.
• Base keywords off search intent – it’s helpful to know where in the sales funnel your viewers are and you can usually decipher this from the search queries they use. When creating AdGroups and writing ad copy around a buying cycle, use words like “Buy” & “Price” for late stage customers and “Reviews” & “best” for beginning stage customers.
• Deciding on cost efficiency – SEO is sometimes viewed as “free” but this is quite the myth. There will be times when competition can make SEO very pricey, so it may not be the most cost effective route. The time and effort to create content pieces cost money so you must consider how much content will be created, how long will it take to create, and how many sources will be used to promote it.

Using PPC to aid your SEO

• Focus on the message – any campaign needs to offer value to users or it isn’t going to get very far. In order to focus on the right message for your customers, you need to connect the dots with customers in an area in which your company excels. Give them a reason to click through to your website. Are you solving a problem for them? Do you have proof your product is better than the others out there? Are you properly providing them information depending on where they are in the buying cycle?
• Connect with customers using their language – think about searcher behavior and how consumers retrieve information – put yourself in their shoes! The next time you search for something on Google, write down your query, identify where you are in the buying cycle, make note of what you found that wasn’t helpful, and most importantly keep tabs on what you found that was. Your AdGroups need to represent these tight knit themes and do the best to give value to that searcher.
• Keep landing pages fresh – identify your best performing landing pages within organic search to use in a PPC campaign (using keywords that convert but don’t have high impressions, remember!). While AdWords Quality Score should not be your primary goal, recent changes in Google’s algorithm may affect your Ad Rank due to a lack of relevance from the linking landing page. For this reason, make sure to keep landing pages and their prospective ads fresh, cohesive, and relevant. Side Note: You can measure this metric through Raven.
• Create distinctive content – identify top converting keywords for organic search by going to Google Analytics > Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium > Click on “Keyword”. Create new content that focus on supplying value to your customers around these keywords.

Best practices for landing page optimizations

• Dedicated landing pages – PPC campaigns should go to PPC specific landing pages, meaning the landing page content should match the PPC copy. Poor message-match may puzzle users, resulting in high bounce rates and lost customers. This may seem like a no-brainer but the truth is that 80% of ad campaigns link out to home pages.
• Selling instead of telling – a successful landing page will provide a influential story. This involves having compelling headlines and subheadings, portraying a unique selling proposition, and have a concise explanation of the benefits and features of the product. Highlight how you go above and beyond, for example “Free Shipping” or “100% Satisfaction”.
• Create trust & credibility – for users who aren’t ready to buy, try including personal testimonials from actual clients to your landing pages. Steer clear of testimonials with broad messages and aim for messages of improvement, for example. “I saved $40 a month”.
• Make them invested – landing pages should provide something valuable to help viewers commit to a brand and hopefully a purchase. This includes case studies from companies using your product, a free quote on how much money they can save, or a free guide about how to successfully get through a nursing program. This helps push the user further down the buyer cycle and helps create an emotional bond towards your brand.
• Test & optimize – use Google Analytics to decide which landing pages are worth A/B testing. Keep an eye out for high traffic, low conversion rates, or high bounce rates. Continue to refine your PPC ads and landing page content to make sure they are running in synch and accomplishing the goal in mind.

It all comes full circle when you keep the viewer in mind. I see it like this: SEO will allow you to understanding the keyword landscape. Knowing how your website performs organically will give you insight on how you can fill the gaps. PPC can then become the complimenting tactic by targeting the keywords you can’t easily target in organic, but do it strategically or it will fall flat. Finally, tracking the efforts will help you improve the ebb and flow of the combination which results in the optimum conversions.

You can view the full webinar here or sign up for other webinars through Raven’s Online Marketing Training Classes.