In the competitive field of paid search, continuous testing is key. From ad copy and visuals to headlines and keywords, everything is fair game. It’s easy to feel like you’ve exhausted all options when trying to boost performance and conversions. But rest assured, there’s always more to explore. Whether you’re a business owner aiming for growth, an account manager seeking fresh tactics, or a PPC specialist digging for campaign optimization gems, these six frequently overlooked strategies can significantly enhance your PPC conversion rate.

1. Establish a Branded Campaign

Branded campaigns are non-negotiable in a crowded market. If you’re not bidding on your own brand terms, your competitors might be. A dedicated branded campaign safeguards your brand identity and prevents competitors from snatching your clicks, impressions, and conversions! Here’s how to get the ball rolling: Let’s illustrate with a client case study. A review of our Search Terms Report revealed a pattern of searches incorporating our client’s brand name.

Searches for these branded terms showed that our client’s ads were missing in action. Instead, three of their main competitors occupied the top ad positions.

Our game-changer move was creating a branded campaign laser-focused on branded keywords. This included their core service or product, aligning with what users typically search for. This branded campaign amplified visibility, CTR, and most crucially, conversions and conversion rates. Within just three months, the branded campaign boosted the overall conversion rate by 10% with an impressive 27 conversions!

A glimpse at the Auction Insights revealed that competitors had a monopoly on 100% of the branded traffic before we implemented the branded campaign for our client.

Even when potential customers are specifically looking for your brand, not being the first paid search result gives them a window to consider competitors. This might be all it takes for them to choose a competitor over scrolling through the search engine results page (SERP) to find your site. Expert tip: Exclude converters to avoid targeting individuals who might already be repeat customers.

2. Experiment with Branded Ad Copy: H1 vs H2

With a branded campaign in place, we set our sights on the next conversion rate optimization opportunity to make a real impact. In today’s world of fleeting attention spans, users seek instant solutions to their search queries. If you don’t deliver immediately, they’ll scroll past your ad or rephrase their search. Not ideal. Since we know users searching for your brand are already interested, why not prominently feature it in the H1, the first element they see? We experimented with placing the brand name in the first headline versus the second to determine the difference it could make. Branded in H1:

Branded in H2:

The results revealed a substantial increase in conversion rate when the brand name occupied the coveted H1 spot! The branded H1 boasted an almost 9% higher conversion rate compared to the branded H2. This test highlights the significant influence of the first headline. Capitalize on the fact that users are specifically searching for YOUR brand!

3. Harness the Power of Search Impression Share

Optimizing your search impression share is another potent yet straightforward way to elevate your average conversion rate. This metric shows the proportion of impressions your campaign (or ad group or keyword) receives compared to its potential impressions. A high-converting campaign with a low impression share percentage is a goldmine waiting to be tapped. Injecting more budget to increase your impression share ensures your ads appear more frequently. We identified a top-performing campaign with a dwindling search impression share, demanding immediate attention. By allocating additional budget to this campaign, we addressed the declining visibility and conversions caused by the shrinking search impression share. Within two weeks, our conversion rate skyrocketed threefold, and the campaign’s search impression share experienced a healthy surge.

#GetThatSearchImpressionShare

4. Optimize Your Landing Page Conversion Rate

Landing page CRO is an exciting aspect of PPC. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The effectiveness of a test depends on the specific case, requiring experimentation to discover what works best. We noticed our client’s landing page seemed to have two CTA buttons: a video play button and the actual CTA button. This duality could potentially confuse users unsure of which button to click. With a low conversion rate of 2.70%, we decided to put our button theory to the test. Our new variant landing page incorporated more social proof and featured a smaller, less distracting “Watch Overview” button.

Variant W, the original landing page.

Variant U, the new variant landing page. Within a week, the new variant, complete with a smaller video play button and added testimonials, achieved a 9.32% conversion rate, outperforming the original variant’s 2.70% rate.

Remember this test when you’re hesitant about implementing minor changes. Even small tweaks can yield substantial results!

5. Engage In-Market Audiences

In-market audiences are groups identified as having demonstrated interest in, researched, or considered purchasing a specific product or service. These segments are invaluable additions to any account because they offer:

• Deeper insights: Understand user behavior and identify groups with higher conversion rates for your business.
• Perfect timing: Reach the right audience at the right moment in their buying journey. While you can observe or target these in-market audiences, starting with observation-only is recommended until you gather sufficient data. If specific audiences demonstrate strong performance with a high volume of impressions, consider adjusting bids or creating tailored campaigns for those groups. We focused on audiences with high costs-per-action (CPAs), significant spend, and minimal to no conversions. Our test involved implementing a negative 50% bid adjustment and setting the targeting to observation only. This negative bid adjustment instructs Google to lower bids by the specified percentage for individuals within that specific market segment. Conversely, a positive bid adjustment signals to Google that you want to increase bids for that specific audience.

While the campaign’s conversion rate increased, the CPA dropped significantly by 36% compared to the previous month! A logical follow-up test would be to apply positive bid adjustments to consistently high-performing in-market audiences. The possibilities are endless! Expert tip: Layer your best-performing in-market audiences with effective demographic audiences to maximize your conversion rate (or exclude high-cost, low-converting audiences).

6. Refine with Negative Search Terms

Have you ever faced client concerns about the quality of leads generated by a campaign? High cost + unqualified leads = immediate campaign pause – at least from the client’s perspective. We’ve all likely encountered this scenario. Before hitting the pause button, let’s explore how this conversion rate optimization tactic increased a campaign’s conversion rate by over 200% (during the typically slow holiday season). Our initial step was to pinpoint the keywords driving conversions to understand the intent behind converting users. Starting at the keyword level, we identified keywords with conversions and then delved deeper into their associated search terms.

Our goal was to identify any irrelevant searches. Most converters in this case used “how to” phrases with “sponsorship, sponsor, and sponsored.” The language in searches for “sponsors/sponsored” indicated consumer or personal intent. Conversely, searches for “sponsorship” suggested business or sales intent. We analyzed our ads to see if they catered to consumer or business intent.

Headlines like “corporate,” “sponsorship,” and “event” implied that these sponsorships were geared towards businesses, potentially at the corporate level. Next, we examined the landing page to decipher the language used: consumer-focused or business-oriented?

The landing page itself aligned with the intent behind “sponsorships” but not “sponsors” or “sponsored.” Expert tip: Identify a high-converting keyword in your campaign and use CTRL + F to count its occurrences on your landing page. You’ll likely find that your top-performing keyword appears multiple times. Repeat this for a high-cost, non-converting keyword. It might be surprising how infrequently (or if at all) it’s mentioned. In our case, “sponsorship” appeared 10 times, while “sponsors/sponsored” was entirely absent. We added the following keywords as negatives, anticipating a decrease in conversions/CPA and, in turn, higher-quality leads.

The results were remarkable. The average conversion rate quadrupled from 2.39% to 8.22%, accompanied by a significant improvement in lead quality! By filtering out less promising searches (those generating high impressions or clicks but no conversions), Google could prioritize displaying our ads to highly targeted users seeking business sponsorships, not individual consumers looking for sponsors.

Here’s a before-and-after comparison of search terms before and after implementing negative keywords. Search terms without negatives:

Search terms with negatives:

Key Takeaways

Whether you’re a seasoned PPC specialist, a growth-oriented account manager, or a business owner navigating the world of online advertising, these six often-overlooked optimizations can significantly improve your PPC conversion rate. Embrace experimentation and enjoy the ride! We encourage you to share your experiences and results if you’ve implemented these optimizations or have any questions.