More consumers than ever before are shopping online. With some forecasts predicting a 15% increase in ecommerce sales during the 2021/22 holiday season, marketers must make sure their campaigns are as strong as possible to win their share of the clicks available.

As we head into what’s looking like another record year for online sales, try these five tips on your next PPC campaigns. The market may be crowded, but with a few changes you can supercharge your campaigns for the new year and capitalise on the increase in online traffic.

1. Direct to a great landing page. As obvious as it may seem, so many great PPC campaigns are wasted on landing pages which won’t convert. You’ve nailed your keywords and crafted excellent copy, but if your ad directs prospects to a page with poor UI, no clear CTA, or irrelevant content, that effort can be wasted. So make sure you pay extra attention to your landing page. Does it provide an answer to the query your user initially searched for? Is it easy to navigate? Is there a clear journey the user should take on the page? By using landing pages that are ripe to convert, you can give your ads the best chance of producing conversions and capitalising on the high volumes of traffic.
   
2. Spring clean your Google Ads account. After a busy year, it’s always a good idea to review the state of your ads account and declutter. As well as gaining a better view of your account, you can root out campaigns which aren’t performing well.

Identify and remove any keywords which aren’t generating impressions, clicks or conversions. Review your remaining campaigns and ask yourself—are these increasing my profits? Generating my leads? Or improving my ROI? If the answer is no, you know what to do. Doing an audit like this will also give you insights to take into your next campaigns. 

1. Optimise for natural language search (NLS). If you’re not familiar with NLS, it refers to the shift from simplified “keyword-ese” that users input into search engines (such as “chocolate cake recipe”) towards more complex language users might employ in everyday conversations (“what is the best chocolate cake recipe”). As search engines become increasingly sophisticated at understanding NLS, they are beginning to prioritise it when it comes to ads. You can optimise your Google Ads for NLS by writing (and thinking) like a human! Avoid repeating your keywords, as this signals to Google that you’re still operating a keyword-based strategy, which goes against the aims of improved NLS. Pay careful attention to how your users would actually search for, instead of just your keywords, and tailor your ad copy to that.
   
2. Clean out the fraudulent and invalid clicks! TrafficGuard’s PPC Protection solution is both the identification and the mitigation for invalid traffic. With some reports suggesting around 30% of ad clicks come from sources of invalid traffic, even the best thought-out ad campaigns could be suffering. TrafficGuard proactively stops your ads from showing to sources of IVT, and offers unprecedented levels of visibility across all your traffic, enabling you to get the most from your data. For better performance and more efficient ad spend, why not layer TrafficGuard onto your 2022 campaigns?

Priced at just 1% of your ad spend, you can’t afford not to give TrafficGuard a go. For more information on accounts and pricing you can visit our site, or contact us here.