You understand what PPC is. You also know the basics. However, what if you still can’t make PPC marketing work for you?

In this article, we move beyond the basics and discuss 5 PPC marketing tips for intermediate performance marketers. These intermediate-level PPC tips will help you improve your results even more and take your search engine marketing game to the next level.

Let’s start with a brief recap of the very basics of PPC marketing before we jump into the more intermediate stuff.

The four key aspects of PPC marketing

The basics of PPC marketing can be categorized into four key areas:

  1. Keywords: Keyword research and selection is the most important aspect of your pay-per-click search advertising campaigns. By using the different match types, you ensure that you are picking the right keywords for your campaigns and target audience that would bring the most ROI at the least possible cost.
  2. The copy of your ad: The ad copy you use also plays a crucial role in determining the quality score of your ad. Moreover, apart from brand awareness and ad quality score, it is the copy of your ad that makes people click and take the desired action.
  3. Landing page: Another key aspect of PPC marketing is the optimization of landing pages. These are the pages where you direct your traffic to. It is important that the landing page (linked to the ad) is relevant to your ad and has the same keywords that your ad uses. Landing pages also directly affect the ad quality score.
  4. Analytics and performance tracking: The last key aspect of running successful PPC campaigns is analytics and performance tracking. It is important to monitor and measure important KPIs and optimize ads accordingly.

Nearly every PPC marketer does these above-mentioned four things. Without these four aspects, there would be no successful Google AdWords (or search engine advertising) campaigns.

However, merely doing these four things do not guarantee profitable results.

Therefore, we have list down 5 intermediate-level PPC marketing tips that you should resort to if you already have the four basic aspects covered and want to take your PPC campaigns to the next level.

Here are the tips:

1. Test with brand keywords

If you have a strong brand, it might be a good idea to leverage that brand awareness into your ad copy.

But first, it is important to determine whether or not you have strong brand awareness. Here is how to do that.

Answer the following questions:

  • Do you get a lot of traffic to your website from people searching specifically for your brand name?
  • For your brand keyword, do you rank on Google’s first page?
  • Does your brand name pop up in Google search auto-suggestions?

If your answer is yes to one or more of these questions, it might be worth testing to include your brand name in the ad copy.

On the other hand, if you have an e-commerce store that sells products from other well-reputed brands, you can also test including that brand’s name in your ad copy.

Note: It is important to note that Google’s policies regarding using brand names in ad copy may vary from country to country. In some countries, there may be some restrictions. Please make sure to learn about your local copyright laws as well as Google’s country-specific policies regarding using brand names in ad copies.

2. Time-based bids


Most beginner advertisers run ads throughout the day — 24x7. While this may not be a bad idea in some circumstances, it could be even better for your business and ROI to schedule your ad for certain times of the day.

You should first identify the peak-converting times. Once you identify the peak-converting times, you can adjust (increase or decrease) your bids based on that information.

On the other hand, if traffic generation (not conversion) is your biggest goal, you should try to determine the peak traffic times.

3. Test discount offers

Another great tip is to including discount offers in your ad copy and test it against other variations.

It is also recommended to test multiple selling points, e.g., free shipping, a limited-time discount offer, guarantees, online discount codes, etc. and test all of them against each other in different keyword groups.

It could prove crucial in determining what your target audience best responds to.

Several PPC experts regularly test different discount offers to drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and improve the conversion rate. However, there are at least two important points you will need to remember when using this strategy:

  • These different selling points may perform differently in the various phases of the sales cycle. Make sure to that this into account.
  • Discounts can quickly minimize your profits. Make sure to readjust your KPIs, selling price, and ad budgets accordingly.

4. Explore new opportunities


Part of succeeding at Google AdWords (or search engine marketing in general) is finding new opportunities at the right time and getting ahead of your competitors.

If you are competing with fewer businesses on the same keywords, you are more likely to bear a curtailed advertising cost — which would also result in better rankings and higher profits.

Therefore, we highly recommend that PPC marketers should always be on the lookout for new opportunities, hot trends, and good keywords.

Google Trends is one of those tools that can help significantly.

First of all, Google Trends provides excellent historical data to dive into. This historical data combined with forecasts for important keywords can help you define your keyword strategy, including:

  • Identification of seasonal keywords that may affect your business. It is up to you to identify any opportunities that come with certain seasonal keywords that are related to your business.
  • Identification of outdated and obsolete keywords that are no longer profitable to pursue and target.

The eBay Pulse tool is another great tool that can help you identify popular search terms in your niche. With the eBay Pulse tool, you can find the language and the keywords that online shoppers are searching for specifically.

5. Use negative keywords smartly

Negative keywords can make or break your campaigns. When used correctly, negative keywords can significantly decrease the cost of your search advertising campaigns and make them profitable.

There are a few different ways you can use negative keywords. It largely depends on what products you’re offering, what is your Google AdWords strategy, and for which keywords you want your ads not to show up.

WordStream has written a good guide on how to use negative keywords. If you want to learn more about it, here is the link to WordStream’s beginner’s guides to building a list of negative keywords.

What’s next?

PPC marketing is a dense and complicated subject. You can learn a lot of things, but nothing beats experience when it comes to search engine advertising.

We hope that the tips we mentioned in this article will help you improve your search engine marketing performance beyond the basic, introductory level.

For learning more about PPC marketing, we recommend reading the following more advanced articles: