How to combine Content Marketing with PPC campaigns

Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing is one of the most popular ways of benefiting from “unique” content generated by the business, with the main objective to boost the impact of both new and already existing online audiences.

According to research brought to light, 79% of online businesses confirm that PPC is their most important vessel, when it comes to profitable sales, with over 80% of advertisers investing the biggest part of their advertising budget to search, social and remarketing ads.

In practice, PPC may bring even better results, when combined with the proper strategy of creating useful and unique content. So let’s see some steps and directions, as to how PPC and content creation strategies may be combined, so that through the increase of interaction between new and existing audiences, simultaneous increase of profitability may be achieved in the long run.

Separating the online audience

Depending on the type of business that is to be promoted online, as well as depending on whether the business is addressed to B2B/B2C (or a combination of the two), it is imperative to separate the targeted audience.

While some audiences devote more time and have greater engagement in social media like Facebook and Instagram, there are other types of audiences that prefer to interact more comprehensively in blogs and online forums.

On a first level, learning to which digital channels the budget will be invested using PPC advertising, there will be greater capacity of creating content that matches the needs of the respective online targeted audience. For instance, shorter and more concise content in social media posts, whereas in blogs we see that the respective posts are lengthier as they refer to audiences that dedicate greater attention and time, thus giving the opportunity for more detailed PPC content to be used.

Since there is adequate data for the specific online targeted audience based on the marketing strategy that has been set, it is important for the proper type and style of PPC content to be selected, matching the specific audience.

Creating a content plan based on PPC & SEO

Creating a content plan is truly important for the reasons below:

• Different types of messages may be separated, as well as different “look and feel” of the various products/services.
• Conveying the right message to different sub-audiences is becoming easier (e.g. based on the channel, as previously reported).
• Communicating the same content multiple times or wrong content that will most likely be considered as “spam”) is avoided.

All the above details have an important impact not only on the investment performance but on the loyalty of the targeted audiences as well.

Furthermore, while Pay Per Click can boost a great deal the visits towards the site through the right targeting of the proper audiences, implementing a SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimization) is an essential part, as it can add even greater value to marketing efforts.

Whatever content is created based on PPC strategy, e.g. a product-specific landing page, it is important to be combined creatively with the right headlines and meta-descriptions, which have been optimized based on keywords that have been selected according to the strategic plan of promotion.

High content quality makes a difference

Even though the PPC can offer significant volume of traffic to the site, the ultimate goal of the strategy is to transform simple visitors into loyal customers who ideally will not need to “charge” us again to bring them over to the site. This is why great attention should be given to the high quality of content, so that the information provided is truly useful and reliable.

Content branding should be based on genuine, “fresh” and well-rounded information, combining in a clever manner the relevant keywords along with the placement of the respective product/service.

Monitoring the relevant news sites will need to be made a habit, as well as monitoring basic social media pages, articles from the leaders in each industry and niche of the business, to gather information regarding the trends, the facts and the latest advancements.

By closely monitoring the above, the creation of PPC links is given, so as to add substantial information to the site visitors, empowering to a great deal the effort to gather loyal clientele.

Monitoring the interactions of PPC advertisements

The best way for a business to maintain its credibility online is to closely monitor the interaction of the audience that has been exposed to PPC advertising and, where deemed necessary, to reply to comments/questions.

For instance, if an e-shop is promoted through PPC advertising promoting discounts to specific products, there needs to be a confirmation that these products are readily available for sale, at the moment the potential customers proceed with an order.

More than that, content regarding products/services or any form of interaction from the part of the business to PPC advertisements should be real and absolutely credible, in relation to the content of the advertisements.

Any failure to produce high-quality content in response to the business towards the audience interacting with PPC advertisements will have a negative impact and will significantly weaken the efforts for maximizing the beneficial results of the PPC marketing budget.

Bottom Line

Pay per click advertising is an exceptional tool for multiple purposes; however, it is still a tool. This tool needs to be boosted with relevant and “unique” content, based on the needs of the targeted audience, as well as the long-term goals of the business.

The combination of content creation and PPC, in all stages of the marketing strategy, is a clever way for a business to take advantage of the full potential offered by the most popular PPC platforms, as we should not forget – especially online – that spoken words fly away, written words remain!