The PPC marketing funnel is a well-known concept for understanding the process of turning leads into customers. At the top of the funnel, marketers capture as many leads as possible, and then slowly nurture them through to retention at the bottom.
Because the funnel describes your customer’s journey with you, it can only work as a whole. In other words, each stage needs to work perfectly for the journey to be successful. That’s why your PPC campaigns should align with your customers’ needs. From awareness to consideration, the more engaged your customers are, the more incentivized they will be to make a purchase.
From awareness to action
At the top of the PPC marketing funnel is the awareness stage, the goal of which is to drive people who have never heard of your product or service to your website. Remember, it’s all about making people see and remember your brand.
Display advertising through Google Display Network allows you to reach people across millions of websites, while non-branded paid search drives traffic more organically. Generally, customers recognize specific products or services, but not brand names. For example, they may search for “exercise watches” and dozens of brands will pop up. This type of paid search will target customers who “accidentally” stumble across your brand.
After they become aware of your brand, customers will weigh their options. Middle-of-the-funnel buyers are therefore interested in learning more about your product or service. This is where paid search and social ads work together.
Display ads can be based on psychographics such as interests, habits, or how people interact with your website. You can also create a custom intent audience segment, or a custom affinity audience, in Google Ads. Google splits audiences up into segments, or groups of people, with specific interests and demographic information. When adding an audience to a campaign or ad group, you can select any segment you want, and Google Ads will target only those selected.
When a person reaches the bottom of the funnel, they will have the strongest commercial intent. By using branded/high intent search campaigns and clear calls to action, you can convert them into paying customers.
You want to make sure that you appear at the top of search engine results. Therefore, your paid search should include keywords that increase your chances of being seen by people with matching search intent. Words such as:
- Buy, quote, call, or contact
- Deal, discount, cost of, or other pricing terms
- Product names
- Competitor terms
Finally, you want as many repeat customers as possible. Remarketing platforms such as Facebook Display Network, YouTube Pre-roll ads, and Google Ads Remarketing are great ways to retain customers.
Our call to action, to you
Need help getting started with your digital marketing? Caroff Communications is one of the premier PPC campaign management companies in San Diego. We understand the power of PPC marketing and can navigate your key metrics and PPC reporting to deliver exponential returns on your ad spending. Whether you need to create brand awareness or generate more sales, we will make your PPC marketing funnel work for you.
