Similar to their marketing counterparts, once you set up your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, you can’t simply set it and forget it–especially not if you’re expecting results. Success with online advertising lies in consistency, attentiveness, responsiveness, and, most importantly, knowing your audience. Before you dive into your next PPC campaign, make sure you’ve first fine-tuned your targeting strategy. If you start with these four tips, you will not only experience greater engagement, but you’ll be able to create more informed campaign decisions in the future.
1. Know your target audience.
First things first, who exactly are you targeting? I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, “If you target everyone, then you target no one.” Well, it turns out it’s also true with PPC ads. It’s natural to want to build as much brand awareness as possible when advertising, but you’ll need to resist the urge to go broad and proceed with a bit more strategy. Know your current prospective renter profile, starting with their geographical location, behaviors, habits, and likes/dislikes. By narrowing down your audience to segments, you’ll be able to conserve precious resources, attract those who are genuinely interested in your property, and better position yourself against neighboring competitors.
2. Refine your messaging.
Messaging can make or break an online ad. It shapes users’ perceptions and drives them to act (or not). With targeted and relevant messaging, you have the potential to move your users from a prospect to conversion. Think about what you want to portray to your target audience about your property and what you want them to do once they see your ad. For insight into possible content, review previous renter messages/conversations and common questions. Consider what sets you apart from your competition? Keep your messages clear, short, and to the point, with one call-per-action per ad. And, remember, your messages should align with the insights you discovered from your target audience profile.
3. Set a goal.
If you don’t have goals, it can be difficult for you to track progress and ultimately measure success. Before launching your PPC campaign, take some time to think about what you’d like to accomplish. Take into account your business needs, campaign output, baseline, and timeline. Some common PPC goals include boosting conversions, increasing awareness, increasing visitor traffic, or securing leads. The specific goal you set will determine which ad features you utilize in your PPC ad. For instance, for increased leads, you’ll want to leverage tools that start the conversion process, like audience targeting, extensions, and ads that appear once your users visit particular sites.
4. Use high-conversion keywords.
If you haven’t yet determined a common theme among these recommendations, I’ll give you a hint–research! All successful PPC ad campaigns start and end with good research. The same applies to your keywords. You’ll want to select keywords that are high volume and will convert. The Google Keyword Planner tool can help hone in our phrases that are likely to provide the highest impressions given your budget. You can also examine the current terms users are using to find you in Google analytics and see which keywords your competitors are using to rank by performing a quick Google search.
Rentbot can help.
If you’ve hit a plateau with your PPC efforts, it’s time to sanction some help. Rentbot improves your Google website ranking and optimizes your property ads, so your property is noticed by the right searchers at the right time. We’re a Google-certified partner who knows websites, multifamily, and, most importantly, how to help you get attention online. We’ll score your more high-quality leads and conversions with our proven SEO strategies and certified ad pros. But, you don’t have to take our word for it. You can view some of our clients’ results here. If you’re ready to enhance your PPC strategy and start turning leads into leases, get started now.
About the Author
Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising, and copywriting, she has helped many clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.