Are you optimizing the right PPC keywords?
Chances are you and many other marketers are using the wrong keywords to target your customers. Recently a client presented us with a problem:
“I’m getting tons of leads from my Forklifts Campaign, but they aren’t the right type of lead.”
So here’s how we manage the Adwords PPC Campaign:
Less Visits, Way Less- CPC Went Down
- Total Cost Went Down
- Leads Went Down
- Close Ratio – Way Up
- CPA Went Way Down
- There were 2 less sales. Average order value decreased by 19%
- Cost per acquisition decreased by 547%
- Revenue decreased by 35%, but spend decreased by 85%
- ROI jumped from 30% to 84%
Are you optimizing your keywords to generate the best ROI?
The client is marketing Forklift Safety and Training Courses for Forklift Operators. They are wanting to sell their multiple use product to companies that need to certify multiple employees at a time. The keywords that they were using were basic keywords that most people would probably assume are correct or relevant. Examples below:
- Forklift safety
- Forklift operator
- Forklift license
- Forklift operation
- Forklift certificate
For the most part these keywords ARE relevant and did bring in many leads, but a majority of the leads were for people wanting an individual license. Individual packages are not the best source of ROI for this client.
So how do you fix a quality problem like this? You need to use your Adwords data and think like a potential lead. Looking at the data, we had a few instances where the search terms showed people were looking for trainer certificates or training requirements. These are who we want! The client was targeting B2C leads, when the focus should have been B2B.
We decided to pause the current campaign and create a new campaign, but with a different focus. Instead we used keywords and targeting that instructors or supervisors might use. Examples are:
- Forklift trainer course
- Forklift trainer requirements
- Train the trainer forklift
- Forklift trainer training
- Forklift trainer OSHA
- OSHA Forklift trainer requirements
We also changed the ad copy to reflect the targeting making sure to include the keyword targeting inside the ads. With verbiage like:
- “Train And Certify Your Employees in 24 hours Or Less”
- “Forklift Train The Trainer Certifications”
- “Ensure Your Workers Certs Don’t Lapse”
After the optimization the client called us and said, “My leads are down”, but our client was missing the big picture on how much this optimization really helped them. By changing the way we were targeting Forklift Safety Training, we not only were able to get the client the type of quality lead they were looking for, we lowered their Cost Per Sale by 547%!
So the short version is by targeting the correct type of lead using data and thinking like the customer, we increased the value of these type of leads for our client AND lowered the cost!
The goal is not always to increase conversions and get more leads. If you have the data and you can optimize your keywords based on the close ratio, you can greatly increase ROI. If you need help with your sales close ratio or leads from PPC, call us today.