Lean times call for reducing budgets, we get it. Unfortunately many businesses look too early and often to cut costs in their PPC (Pay-Per-Click) efforts. This is a dangerous tactic. While it's easy to question the resources allocated to this area when evaluating ROI (return on investment), it's important to consider the ground you would potentially lose by doing this as well as the time, effort and money it'll take to rebuild when you start losing results. There's no need to abandon your paid search campaign altogether. We've put together four fundamentals to keep in mind when you're planning your online advertising strategy on a reduced budget along with assessing what works and what doesn't.
1. Most bang-for-the-buck
2. Not everyone is born a starOptimize around performance not volume. This should be a cornerstone of any online strategy but takes on even greater importance when looking at cutting costs. Forget about number of clicks or number of impressions. We're talking about how much you're spending per sale here (CPA - Cost Per Acquisition). Look at your conversion rates and your cost-per-click (CPC) metrics. These will tell you where to put your money and where it's just not worth it anymore. Remember, things are always changing so revisit this during your regular account maintenance.
Continue exploiting elements that have been successful and scale back the underperformers. You certainly don’t want to cut back on the ad groups and keywords that have been performing well with high conversion rates. These keep your campaign(s) cranking along and quite possibly are responsible for much of your ROI. Instead, identify the keywords that haven’t been converting well and the ad groups that haven’t been meeting your performance goals. Pausing these will allow you to save the money you’re currently spending on them. Reallocate that budget or add it into a larger budget later.
3. Respect the tortoises
Look for those elements in your campaign that can remain consistent even through budget cuts. It’s important to understand which parts of your campaign are streaky or hot at the moment and which parts can be maintained continuously over time. Then, think carefully about which ad groups and keywords you might consider pausing. Maybe it's time to halt all keywords except those that are an exact match. This can allow you to:
fine-tune your branding
focus on your target audience
Maybe you should continue with just your top five highest performers and pause all the others. Honestly there's a thousand scenarios but only by digging deep into your analytics and looking practically at where your money is being spent will you know what action to take. Whatever course you choose, remember to be consistent in your strategy.
4. Keep on tweaking
Even when the time comes to suspend certain elements you can still make the most of the situation. Take advantage of this paused time to analyze, optimize and make changes to your ad groups with an eye towards improved performance once they're reactivated.
Sometime it's simple stuff:
Do your ad groups match the offers they promote?
Are your keywords working?
Is it time to change or add some?
Have you evaluated your A/B tests lately?
Why is one ad working and one not so much?
Answering even a few of the basics can often be all it takes to know that perhaps it's time to revamp your lineup.
Be assured, there's always tons you can do to keep your paid search campaign up and running, even within the most austere budget. Keep evaluating, keep optimizing, and use Hubspot's tools to get the most out of your efforts.
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