In order to increase website traffic, increase conversions, and obtain higher quality leads, a robust paid advertising strategy is essential.

 
Let’s take a look at insights that will lead to successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in the new year.

Fuel Paid Social Strategies With Organic Social

 
“Paid social media specifically is fueled by a steady growth in your organic social media community. Long gone are the days of running paid social media ads without fostering your organic growth on social. Think of organic social media as top of funnel, says Ashley Rector, Founder of Laura Alexandria Marketing, a social media micro-agency focused on strategizing, launching and scaling direct-to-consumer brands. “You are creating brand awareness, you are building the lifestyle of your brand, you are also gathering insights to see what will perform well on paid social. Paid social is using a more directed approach to maximize for conversions.”

Know Your Audience

In order for ads to be successful, they must be geared towards the right audience, and must resonate with that audience. This is why it’s critical to know who that audience is, very specifically.

 
“Get clear on who your target audience is, how your product or service addresses their wants and needs, and what drives their purchasing decisions. Use these insights to inform creative and messaging at each stage of the customer journey. Instead of relying on ad platform algorithms, test into more detailed targeting to get the right message in front of each audience segment,” says Meghan Hardy, Founder of Happening Ideas, a growth strategy company for direct-to-consumer brands.

Hardy emphasizes the importance of targeting audience segments. “When using lookalike targeting, consider testing into high-value lookalike segments – for example, your top 10% of active customers based on spend – in addition to broader lookalike segments.”

Allocate Budgets Effectively

“Consider allocating budget to every stage of your funnel. It can be tempting to allocate all of your advertising spend to the bottom part of your funnel (conversions), but this typically leads to lower conversion rates because your prospects are colder. A full-funnel ad strategy can boost brand awareness and help your prospects be ready to buy,” advises Kinsey Wolf, Founder of The Lane Collective, a startup growth marketing collective.

 
She goes on to say that it’s important to balance your desire to test with your budgets. “Ad campaigns need a to have an adequate budget, or they'll fail to thrive. That said, testing is key to finding the right combination of creative and copy. Whether you're leaning on a partner or doing it yourself, focus on ensuring that the campaigns you run have enough budget to be successful if they have the potential to be.”

Make The Algorithms Work For You

In theory, algorithms should present your ad to the people who are most likely to convert. However, it can be tricky to set up ads in the right way to get the algorithms working for you effectively – and requires some time and patience.

“Give the algorithms time to learn. Meta, Google, and TikTok want you to keep spending, so they want you to be successful. One way of doing that is by giving the algorithms time to learn after you make a change. Most ad experts seem to recommend waiting 10 days to two weeks between changes,” says Wolf.

Short-Form Video Content Works

Short-form videos on apps like Tik-Tok work well for ads. “The more informal, the better. We are also finding that personalization is selling very well on our e-commerce sites. When we sell things that have a personalization element (i.e. people can add names or images) those ads are converting better,” says Rachel Rofe, Founder of CustomHappy, a product fulfillment company for personalized gifts.

“It's also been important to continually test new creatives. In the past we would run one ad until it died out, but now we're always testing new hooks, new endings, and new angles so that we don't need to stop and start all over again. Since the ads don't need to be mega produced this makes things easier.”

User-Generated Content

“User-generated content (UGC) content will stay prominent on paid social. Consumers want to buy authentic products from real-life individuals. The creation of micro-communities will continue into 2023 so it will be less about quantity and more about the quality of your community – ads will be hyper focused and I foresee brands relying on retargeting heavily,” says Rector.

Data Is Critical

“Ensure that you can track attribution – before going live. Data is critical for making strategic decisions and knowing which campaigns work. To do that, focus on both conversion tracking, from first touch to close, and attribution tracking, to know which campaigns are actually driving sales,” says Wolf.

She says it’s important to compare your performance to industry benchmarks. “There's a ton of data out there about average conversion rates and ROAS. Use it to set strategic goals when you are first getting started, and see how your ad accounts stack up as you grow.”

Knowing which metrics to track and analyze your results is key to future success.

“Ensure your team is clear on KPIs, targets, and data sources. You should have a firm handle not only on output metrics, such as conversions, list size, or CPA, but also on input metrics, such as click-through rate, CPM, CPC, or email sign-up rate, as the latter is what drives the former. Look at performance over time, rather than just week-over-week or month-over-month, to identify trends,” adds Hardy.

Think Holistically About Your Customer Journey

“Your digital ads should be part of a journey that drives awareness among your target audience, then nurtures that audience down the path to conversion. Consumers need different information at each stage of that purchase consideration process, so be sure to reflect that in your ads. Consider what that journey looks like beyond your ads. For example, do your landing pages deliver on the messaging in your ads? Finally, look for learnings that you can share across channels – if there's a message that's performing well in email, or themes that drive engagement in organic social, take those learnings and test them in your paid ads,” advises Hardy.