8 Advanced PPC Conversion Rate Optimization Techniques to Crush Your Competition

Bill Widmer
By
November 22, 2017 ·

Before you start reading this article on PPC, a word of disclaimer:

If you’re a newbie PPC marketer, do yourself a favour…

Close this window and go read another PPC guide instead. (And I mean that in the nicest, least offensive way!)

I’m going to be introducing some pretty advanced techniques in this post, and it might be a little too technical and/or overwhelming if you don’t have any experience with PPC.

But if you’ve been running your PPC campaigns for a while now, and you understand the basics of how to optimize these campaigns, then you’re at the right place.

These higher-level conversion rate optimization techniques that I’ll be teaching you will help you make your campaigns even more profitable…

…and help you absolutely crush your competition.

Ready? Great. Let’s dive right in!

#1: Have your campaign show up on “Near Me” searches

(This one is for all the entrepreneurs who have physical shopfronts. If it doesn’t apply to you, skip ahead to the next point!)

Running a successful campaign is all about localization, my friend.

You probably already do this on some level. Obviously, when you’re creating your ad, you’ll be specifying that you want to target people in, say, New York, as opposed to Chicago.

But that isn’t good enough.

New York is a huge city, and just because someone’s in New York, it doesn’t mean that they’re located relatively near your business, or that it’s convenient for them to visit you.

How do you get around this?

Simple – create a campaign for “Near Me” searchers!

For this to work, make sure you target a highly specific location (for example, Long Island, instead of just New York).

You’ll now be getting higher quality traffic, better conversions, and more people showing up at your store!

#2: Enable Mobile Click-to-call (not just phone call extensions!)

This next tip is super simple to accomplish, but it’s something that not many PPC marketers know about.

I’m talking about… enabling your Mobile Click-to-call function.

Now, don’t get confused:

This isn’t the same as your phone call extensions, which looks like this:

Enable Mobile Click-to-call (not just phone call extensions!)

Phone call extensions show up in the form of a “call” button next to your ad.

The click-to-call function, on the other hand, turns your dead phone number on your mobile site into a live, clickable phone number.

Without click-to-call, consumers need to manually copy and paste your number to their call function, before they can give you a call.

With click-to-call, they can ring you with a single tap of the screen. This translates to more enquiries, and higher conversion rates for you!

#3: Bid on competitors’ keywords

Here’s how you get all your low-hanging fruit:

Bid on your competitors’ keywords (specifically, your competitors who don’t have an online presence).

I’m talking about all the old-school companies which still rely heavily on TV, print, and radio ads.

They spend huge bucks on these large-scale ad campaigns, but they don’t even have a website set up. That’s a fantastic opportunity for you to jump right in.

Think about it from the consumer’s perspective:

You see a pretty interesting ad about XYZ plumbing company, and you’d like to make an appointment to get some work done.

The problem is, you can’t remember their phone number – all you recall is their name.

What do you do? You search for them online…

…and since you can’t find their website, you click on an ad for another plumbing company which guarantees they’ll be able to fix all your plumbing issues within an hour, flat.

You’re basically stealing customers off your competitor, and it is kind of a sneaky thing to do.

But it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and if you’re not willing to do it, someone else will!

#4: Use remarketing ads, but to cross-sell and up-sell

Remarketing ads are one of the oldest tricks in the book, but they’re super effective.

Use remarketing ads, but to cross-sell and up-sell
Image from Medium.com

Here’s how to maximize your remarketing ads:

Don’t just use them to target shoppers who have abandoned their carts.

Use them to target shoppers who have made a purchase, and up-sell or cross-sell them that way!

This makes total sense, if you think about it:

target shoppers who have made a purchase, and up-sell or cross-sell them that way!
Image fromprintfull.com

It’s easier to sell to a shopper who’s browsed through your products (or even added these to a cart!) before, as opposed to a shopper who’s never seen your site. We all know that.

But it’s even easier to sell to a shopper who’s purchased an item on your site before, and who’s familiar with your shipping and return policies.

One last little-known tip: Consider working with well-known influencers to name drop in your remarketing ads. You can find them via an influencer network. For example, your ad might read “Looking for the best outfit for this weekend? See what Sophia Amoruso is wearing.””

So go ahead and launch some new remarketing campaigns, stat!

#5: Use Adwords’ Dynamic Keyword Insertion feature

Guys, here’s a PSA:

Adwords’ Dynamic Keyword Insertion feature is truly a game-changer.

Basically, this helps you better tailor your ads to what your consumers are searching for… without having to manually create ads with different keywords.

All you gotta do is to use a keyword insertion code in your ad headline. For example:

Headline: Buy {KeyWord:Chocolate}

That’s all there is to it. The rest is up to Adwords – it’ll replace this code with the different keywords in your ad group, and automatically push out these variants of your ad.

Use Adwords' Dynamic Keyword Insertion feature

Smart, huh?

#6: Use Adwords’ In-market Audiences feature

Google bills it’s In-market Audiences as “a way to connect with consumers who are actively researching or comparing products and services”.

Previously, this feature was only available for Display Network and YouTube campaigns. But earlier this year, Google rolled out the same feature for Search campaigns as well.

For entrepreneurs, this is huge!

You’re now able to reach out to shoppers who are further along in their buyer’s journey. Because these shoppers have been actively Googling and researching their various options, you know they’re really looking to make a purchase.

#7: Use Google’s Ad Customizers

Here’s another feature that allows you to automate your ads (the updating of your ads, to be precise):

Google’s Ad Customizers.

These are great for driving urgency. For example, you could have an ad that says…

50% Flash Sale Off All Dresses & Rompers – Sale Ends in 5 Days.

…and with your Ad Customizers enabled, Adwords will automatically program the “5 days” bit to update in real-time.

You can even get down to the nitty-gritty (using hours instead of days) with this, and do something along the lines of…

Free marketing webinar starts in 2 hours – claim your seat now!

…again, with your “2 hours” bit updating in real time.

Sometimes you just gotta take a step back, and marvel at technology.

#8: Use IP exclusions so your competitors can’t see your ads

You know how you’re always checking out what your competitors are doing, and keeping an eye on their ads?

Well, I can guarantee that they’re doing the exact same thing to you.

So here’s a trick that will enable you to stop your competitors from spying on you, plus eliminate any ad spend that you’re wasting from their clicks:

IP exclusions!

The first thing you’ll need to do is to find out your competitors’ IP addresses (there are a few ways you can do this – check out this article, and if that doesn’t work, there’s this other one as well.)

Once you’re done, go ahead and exclude these IP addresses from your campaigns.

Use IP exclusions so your competitors can't see your ads

That’s it – you’re done!

As far as your competitors are concerned, you’re no longer running ads on Google.

Now that you’ve filtered out these pesky people who just want to spy on you, and won’t actually buy any products, your conversion rates are likely to increase as well!

Final thoughts on advanced PPC conversion rate optimization techniques

Go ahead and experiment with the above conversion rate optimization techniques that we’ve just outlined above…

…but at the same time, do keep in mind that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Just because a certain feature (In-market Audiences, for example!) worked for someone else, it doesn’t mean it’ll work for you as well.

Some of these functions might be more useful for certain industries and types of products, and not as effective for others.

So test out the various techniques above, and remember, always track and evaluate your efforts, so that you can fine-tune your campaign for better results.

Time to start optimizing your campaigns – better conversion rates await!

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Originally published November 22, 2017 - Updated July 17, 2024
Written By
Bill Widmer
Bill Widmer
Bill Widmer
Bill specializes in helping eCommerce service businesses increase their traffic and sales through content marketing and SEO.

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