A PPC (pay per click) ad campaign can prove to be a very effective source of online traffic and revenue. PPC listings are generally considered that much quicker and uncomplicated to set up, provided your selection of an expert is precise. But there a few key things to be always kept in mind. Which are they?

Understand domain specific and customer needs

Consider target audience and domain specific demands for your campaign set-up. Understand what users look for and value about your particular product/ service. Experiment with different descriptive terms as keyword in a campaign. For instance, are they more likely to be drawn to ‘high-end, luxury’ category or ‘economy’ range? This is something you obviously need to know. Scientific PPC testing methods can help you to check out.

Ensure proper budget allocation

Precise and well-thought allocation of resources for PPC advertising will hold the key to profitability, depending on how you well manage this aspect. Ideally, allocate more to your most popular campaign where you are ensured of higher margins on the products on offer.

Go for higher bids on keywords that are highly converting, and also on long-tail key terms most often searched for online by the segment of highly motivated buyer. Keep a tab on campaigns tagged in AdWords as ‘limited by budget’, probably indicating you’re losing a significant level of impression share with your current budget, thus missing out on possible opportunities.

However, don’t assume just because it’s tagged so, you need to increase the budget to your campaign. Such decisions should be taken on basis of the historical data gathered to determine each campaign’s viability or profitability. There is no rule of thumb in terms of PPC budget allocation. Each campaign as well as ad group should be separately analyzed so as to make the most out of it.

Pay attention to the campaign settings

An oft-overlooked area in PPC is the settings tab in Google AdWords that helps to target your prospects. It incorporates the “under the hood” options, for example, where the PPC ads will show up geographically, when and what devices you would want them to appear, and the network(s) you would like them to be featured in; such as search and display.

A campaign can be reasonably profitable if correct options are chosen in the settings tab. If you choose the wrong settings, or do not make requisite default settings adjustments, your campaign can suffer.

Last but not the least, your landing pages need to be precisely specific to the ad group being targeted. Avoid using home page as a campaign landing page, barring the most generic ad groups. Computer-only and mobile targeting should be treated separately. Mock or actual ad testing will help you to gather greater insight and enhance performance.