<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/68fa123e3853b09b77055ebb_651d3d5ab30c11a673669131_641c611ed364d575d6b49852_Making%252520PPC%252520Work%252520Harder%252520for%252520your%252520Marketing%252520Strategy%252520(1).png" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Expression</span> <h1 class="gn-title">Round-up: How to Leverage PPC Insights to Support your Wider Marketing Strategy</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>25 March 2023</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>7 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <p class="gn-lede gn-reveal">With PPC activity generating an <a href="https://techjury.net/blog/ppc-stats/#gref" target="_blank"><strong>average ROI of 200%</strong></a>, the challenge many marketers are facing this year is not so much in 'doing it right', but rather in <strong>squeezing the most value</strong> out of what they do.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">In our latest workshop, 'Making PPC Work Harder for your Marketing Strategy', our experts share the <strong>foundations of a healthy PPC strategy</strong>, and key ways that you can <strong>utilise your investment into existing PPC efforts</strong> to support other areas of your marketing and wider business strategy. Including, <strong>leveraging PPC to support SEO activity</strong>, drive stronger customer insights and demonstrate real business value.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Our experts:</strong></p> <ul class="gn-reveal"> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-wilson-taylor-837158145/" target="_blank"><strong>Meg Wilson-Taylor</strong></a>, Operations Manager, <a href="https://circusppc.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Circus</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/turan-kasimova-4280672b/" target="_blank"><strong>Turan Kasimova</strong></a>, Senior Media Operations Director, <a href="https://www.mcsaatchiperformance.com/" target="_blank"><strong>M&amp;C Saatchi Performance</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alpsemercioz/" target="_blank"><strong>Alp Semercioz</strong></a>, Managing Director, <a href="https://www.77agency.com/" target="_blank"><strong>77 Agency</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-hewitt/" target="_blank"><strong>Carl Hewitt</strong></a>, CEO &amp; Co-Founder, <a href="https://hewittmatthews.co.uk/" target="_blank"><strong>Hewitt Matthews</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauradavies33/" target="_blank"><strong>Laura Davies</strong></a>, Head of Paid Social, <a href="https://www.visualsoft.co.uk/" target="_blank"><strong>VisualSoft</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-bartram-356a16101/" target="_blank"><strong>Ryan Bartram</strong></a>, PPC Specialist, <a href="https://darkhorse.co/" target="_blank"><strong>Dark Horse</strong></a></li> </ul> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/events" target="_blank"><strong><em>View our upcoming events calendar</em></strong></a></p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>In this Article:</strong></p> <ul class="gn-reveal"> <li><strong>The foundations of a healthy PPC strategy to build valuable insights from</strong></li> <li><strong>How to leverage PPC insights to support your wider marketing strategy</strong></li> <li><strong>Considerations for a sustainable process, demonstrating value, and external support</strong></li> </ul> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>READ OUR KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE SESSION BELOW, OR WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/resources/playback-making-ppc-work-harder-for-your-marketing-strategy" target="_blank">HERE</a></strong></p> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">01</span>The Foundations of a Healthy PPC Strategy to build Valuable Insights From</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">While PPC can be an effective strategy for <strong>generating leads, boosting web traffic, growing online sales and increasing brand awareness</strong>, executing a strong Paid Advertising strategy depends on various factors, from <strong>defining your goals</strong> and target audience to optimising your landing pages. Below <strong>Alp</strong> shares the <strong>foundations of a healthy PPC strategy</strong> to build valuable insights from.</p> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"> <figure class="w-richtext-figure-type-video w-richtext-align-fullwidth" style="padding-bottom:56.33802816901409%" data-rt-type="video" data-rt-align="fullwidth" data-rt-max-width="" data-rt-max-height="56.33802816901409%" data-rt-dimensions="426:240" data-page-url="<iframe title=&quot;vimeo-player&quot; src=&quot;https://player.vimeo.com/video/811306981?h=3ea8bcccc0&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; height=&quot;360&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen></iframe>"><div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/811306981" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div></figure> </div> <figcaption><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/resources/playback-making-ppc-work-harder-for-your-marketing-strategy" target="_blank"><strong>WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP PLAYBACK</strong></a></figcaption> </figure> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Identify your USP</h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Before getting into the nuts and bolts of a PPC strategy, take a step back to <strong>identify what really makes your business unique</strong>, because there are so many organisations alike advertising online in what is a quite saturated market, so if you're not the cheapest, and if you've not got something unique to shout about <strong>that messaging can get diluted</strong>. <strong>PPC is all about putting the right message in front of the right person at the right time</strong>. Therefore, if you haven't got much to say on the messaging front, it can become a real challenge when trying to develop a healthy PPC strategy."<cite>Meg Wilson-Taylor · Operations Manager, Circus</cite></blockquote> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">02</span>How to leverage PPC insights to support your wider marketing strategy</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">PPC campaigns are ideal for <strong>driving traffic to your website quickly</strong>, giving your brand immediate exposure on SERP's and ultimately delivering early revenue. However, such quick results are not the only benefit of PPC activity for your business. Integrating your PPC insights in your wider marketing and business strategy can <strong>help improve your overall performance and maximise ROI across various channels</strong>, but how do you begin leveraging those insights?</p> <p class="gn-reveal">View our <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/round-up-investing-in-organic-growth-maximising-your-channels-in-2023" target="_blank"><strong><em>Round-up: Investing in Organic Growth – Maximising your Channels in 2023</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Stop approaching PPC as a siloed channel</h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"<strong>An extra value add of PPC is how it can complement other channels</strong>. You can use content derived from your PPC activity for social or video assets and vice versa. For example, your PPC team and social team can get together to discuss the message or imagery that they've put out that has <strong>produced the best results</strong> and so this can be used across both channels to maximise the chance of success. PPC should not be looked at in a siloed perspective."<cite>Laura Davies · Head of Paid Social, VisualSoft</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">View our <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/round-up-how-to-execute-a-strong-cross-channel-inbound-campaign" target="_blank"><strong><em>Round-up: How to Execute a Strong Cross-Channel Inbound Campaign</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Utilise data-driven attribution</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">Data-driven attribution can help you gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, <strong>improve your ROI</strong>, and make more informed decisions about your campaigns.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Google is pushing us towards a data driven attribution, whether we like it or not, but it does give us a <strong>bigger understanding of ways other media feed into PPC</strong>. If you get your goal tracking set up correctly, then with the use of Google Analytics, for example, you can start to gain an understanding of <strong>what does PPC actually pool?</strong> Or <strong>what has influenced PPC ROI?</strong> Because it's not just customers searching for your brand and selecting it, it's much more complicated than that. Especially with your marketplace, you've got Google and Amazon, so you want to identify where do people go to research? <strong>Would they go to buy on Amazon directly, and go to research on Google?</strong>"<cite>Turan Kasimova · Senior Media Operations Director, M&amp;C Saatchi Performance</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">She adds, you can gain key learnings from PPC data very quickly on what wording or imagery works best, which can be used to <strong>adopt other creatives in your branding activity or digital out-of-home campaign</strong>, for example.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">View our <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/round-up-5-ways-to-get-more-from-your-marketing-data" target="_blank"><strong><em>Round-up: 5 Ways to Get More from your Marketing Data</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Find Content Insight from your PPC Keyword Data</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">When it comes to digital marketing, <strong>PPC and SEO are arguably the two sides of the same coin</strong>. Knowing how to use SEO and PPC together is a critical step in expanding your digital strategy to nurture top-of-funnel leads to the bottom-of-the-funnel.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"You can use PPC keyword data to <strong>select and test which keywords drive the highest traffic</strong> and revenue before committing that to an SEO strategy, in addition you can take up more search engine result page space, if you're running both. On your PPC search term reports, you can identify what audiences are looking at to trigger your ads and therefore use these findings <strong>to inform your content marketing strategy or outbound calling strategy</strong>. As you have a better understanding of the questions your target audience are asking, so the content you now produce or dialogue on a call will be <strong>more relevant</strong> to that."<cite>Carl Hewitt · CEO &amp; Co-Founder, Hewitt Matthews</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">Read our SEO 101 article: <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/seo-101-practical-tips-to-improve-your-seo-strategy-with-limited-resource" target="_blank"><strong><em>Practical Tips to Improve your SEO Strategy with Limited Resource</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Understand your goal conversion path</h3> <aside class="gn-quote gn-reveal"><q>That's a way that you can articulate the value of a PPC strategy to clients by using the Analytics interface.</q><cite>Ryan Bartram · PPC Specialist, Dark Horse</cite></aside> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Ryan</strong> states the importance of, "understanding a goal conversion path. Often the journey to someone <strong>making a purchase is not as simple as see ad, click ad, and buy</strong>, there's a journey across that process. Through analytics you can see that journey mapped out with all the different touch points that people had to make for a purchase, <strong>displaying how the channels are intrinsically working together</strong>. Therefore, when we look at things like assisted conversions and goal paths, if you were to remove PPC, you will notice how much revenue you would potentially lose, because these are the conversions that PPC has had a hand in.</p> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img alt="Turan Kasimova, Senior Media Operations Director at M&C Saatchi Performance on leveraging PPC data" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/68fa123d3853b09b77055eb5_641f762dce09cd124e442bc3_turan.png" width="auto" height="auto" loading="auto"></div> <figcaption>Turan Kasimova, Senior Media Operations Director at M&amp;C Saatchi Performance, on leveraging PPC data.</figcaption> </figure> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">03</span>Demonstrating value, and considerations for external support</h2> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Demonstrating value</h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"The way PPC drives traffic gives you a lot of indicators of: what works for your customer? <strong>What USPs of your business are they responding well to?</strong> What was the landing page on the website and what pages do they visit? You can use those insights to start <strong>influencing your product</strong>, i.e. if something catches the eye of your customers, which perhaps is not your core offering, you can start to push it and develop it."<cite>Turan Kasimova · Senior Media Operations Director, M&amp;C Saatchi Performance</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Carl</strong> highlights the importance of proving the value of PPC leads to CFOs, "for example if a PPC lead that converts stays with your business twice as long as an outbound cold call, then this should be used to demonstrate to Directors or CFOs that <strong>PPC leads hold more value than other marketing leads</strong>, and therefore should be <strong>prioritised when it comes to budget allocation</strong> as it drives towards wider business goals.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Read: <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/7-ways-to-get-genuine-stakeholder-buy-in-for-your-marketing-strategy" target="_blank"><strong><em>7 Way to Get Genuine Stakeholder Buy-in for your Marketing Strategy</em></strong></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Considerations for external support</h3> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Most agencies like us are a Google premier partners, which means they have those relationships with Google that they can lean on, likewise with Microsoft advertising. Therefore, you might be as the client just speaking to us, <strong>but we can speak to a lot of other people on your behalf to help elevate your strategy</strong>."<cite>Meg Wilson-Taylor · Operations Manager, Circus</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"One of the biggest benefits of using external agency support is the <strong>number of verticals that can be covered as a team</strong>. For example, chances are that someone in our team has worked within the vertical that you're in, i.e. luxury goods, food and drink, or automotive. Furthermore, chances are that we've had a client in the same space, <strong>and we've already seen what does and what doesn't work within that</strong>."<cite>Ryan Bartram · PPC Specialist, Dark Horse</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"<strong>PPC isn't a one size fits all thing</strong>. We don't just say this is what we do for every client. We carry out CSS testing, run dual feeds, performance max testing with assets and no assets to make sure that we're getting <strong>the best out of the strategy for each individual client</strong>. Like I say, it's not a one size fits all, so it's making sure that the strategy is specific for that particular client."<cite>Laura Davies · Head of Paid Social, VisualSoft</cite></blockquote> <aside class="gn-callout gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-callout__label">What this means for you</div> <h4>Key ways to leverage PPC insights across your marketing strategy</h4> <ul> <li><strong>Stop siloing PPC.</strong> Your PPC team and social team can get together to discuss the message or imagery that they've put out that has produced the best results and so this can be used across both channels to maximise the chance of success.</li> <li><strong>Use keyword data for SEO and content.</strong> You can use PPC keyword data to select and test which keywords drive the highest traffic and revenue before committing that to an SEO strategy.</li> <li><strong>Map your goal conversion path.</strong> Through analytics you can see that journey mapped out with all the different touch points that people had to make for a purchase, displaying how the channels are intrinsically working together.</li> <li><strong>Demonstrate value to stakeholders.</strong> If a PPC lead that converts stays with your business twice as long as an outbound cold call, then this should be used to demonstrate to Directors or CFOs that PPC leads hold more value than other marketing leads.</li> </ul> </aside> <p class="gn-reveal"><em>If you're investing in your PPC strategy this year, make sure you're getting the most from your time. The GO Network offer cost-free agency recommendations, pitch management, and more.</em> <a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/get-in-touch" target="_blank"><strong><em>Get in touch</em></strong></a><em> to get started.</em></p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/smarter-not-harder-driving-stronger-data-and-insights-from-your-marketing-strategy" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Driving Stronger Data and Insights from your Marketing Strategy</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Agency experts share how to frame, translate, and automate analytics, turning overwhelming data into strategy-shaping insights that prove ch</span> </a> </li> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/making-ppc-work-harder-for-your-marketing-strategy" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Making PPC Work Harder for your Marketing Strategy</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Stop leaving value on the table. 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