We all want our business to grow but what is the best way to get people to know about your business? SEO is great for getting your site to show up in organic searches, but how do you stay on the very top? Pay-per-click advertising has really become the new standard in advertising because of its customizability, flexibility and affordability. It’s important to realize that PPC is not just for e-commerce sites. PPC is an effective means for websites and companies needing lead generation as well.
PPC doesn’t close the deal in lead generation like it does for e-commerce. Instead, a company’s sales team will close the deal and gain a customer or client. You may be thinking, well I don’t have a sales team, but your sales team may be as simple as the person who answers the phone at a physician’s or attorney’s office. These people aren’t necessarily sales people, but they are the people that ultimately close the deal.
While there are certainly other ways to get people to your site to contact you for information (blogging, email, social media, organic search, or even word of mouth), PPC lets you appear on page one (if you’re doing it right), and be in front of the people that are searching for what you provide right NOW. You are paying to get in front of the people who NEED you (again, if you’re doing it right) and not spending money on your ads to be shown to everyone, as traditional advertising often does. (We’ll take a more detailed look into targeting later on.) Waiting for organic SEO results from your content or blog can be a very long process, if it even works (did you do it yourself or did you hire someone for your SEO needs?). When you decide to use PPC for lead generation, your campaign can be up and running in a matter of hours, bringing the people you want to your site.
How to use PPC for Lead Generation:
Quality over quantity – Sure, everyone wants more traffic to their website, but if you are a provider of X, you don’t want traffic that’s searching for Y. PPC allows you to hone in on your ideal customer through well written ads, very specific keywords, and of course, location, location, location! (Targeting)
Use your PPC ad to encourage a call to action – Your ad copy and your website need to offer more than just information on your business. Anyone can read information on a website, but if they have no direction on what to do next, you’ve just lost that potential lead. In order for someone to become a lead, you’ll need to create a call to action. Offer something such as a free estimate, free trial or discount rate, downloadable guide/article, join a mailing list, CLICK TO CALL, or even a contact us for more information (aka lead generation form with corresponding thank you page). These types of calls to action can be shared easily. People like free things, discounts, and filling out forms for information. It’s all about being easy to navigate.
Use different landing pages – Don’t just bring your lead to your website. You need to create quality content for quality leads: simple, clean and concise information, give them what they came for (from the ad copy) and make it as easy as possible, or you’ll risk losing their interest. Don’t offer a free trial and then bring them to a page to buy an item. As the old saying goes, you can lead a potential customer to your site, but you can’t make them drink (or something like that). Make it clear and easy for them to obtain the free trial or they’ll click away and on to someone else. How do you do this? Landing pages – lots of them.
Track Conversions and then follow up – Measure, monitor, and then maximize your conversions. If you want to know why you should be tracking your phone calls for PPC, you can read more about that here. Then, make sure you are following up with every lead. Need a solution to keeping track of leads? We’ll talk more about Customer Relationship Management in another blog post.
Are you using PPC for lead generation?
Yes? That makes us happy, and it probably makes your business happy. No? Well, what are you waiting for? If you are looking for ways to drive leads into your hands, PPC may be the answer for you. Contact us today at Full Circle SEM for a free consultation. (How’s that for a call to action?)
