PPC targeting is essential for any successful pay-per-click campaign, allowing advertisers to connect with their ideal audience through platforms like search engines and social media. By selecting the right keywords, locations, and demographics, you can ensure your ads reach users most likely to engage and convert. Effective targeting helps optimize ad spend and drive higher returns on investment. In Google Ads, the average return is reported to be at a 2:1 ratio; in Amazon Ads, it is more than 6:1, and in Facebook Ads, it can even exceed 10:1. This means every buck you spend on PPC ad campaigns may bring you 2, 6, and over 10 bucks, respectively (based on data by ClickIntelligence, Jungle Scout, and Databox)! This is why the idea is worth considering seriously.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the domain of PPC targeting, explaining the key strategies that make it successful, mistakes to avoid, and providing a few examples for your inspiration.
Key Takeaways:
- PPC targeting is crucial for connecting with the right audience through platforms like search engines and social media, maximizing ad spend efficiency and ROI.
- Effective PPC strategy involves goal setting, platform selection, keyword research, ad development, budget management, and continuous optimization.
- Platform-specific strategies – like using LinkedIn for B2B campaigns or Microsoft Ads for in-market audiences – can enhance the relevance and effectiveness of PPC campaigns.
- Common PPC mistakes like using broad keywords, ignoring negative keywords, and neglecting device targeting can waste ad spend but can be avoided with a more strategic approach.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
What is PPC Targeting?
PPC targeting (pay-per-click targeting) refers to the actions and methods used to define and reach specific audiences for online advertisements in PPC campaigns. It involves selecting criteria such as demographics, interests, keywords, location, device types, and more to ensure that ads are shown to the most relevant users who are more likely to engage with them or convert into customers (no matter how quickly). This is also why targeting helps optimize ad spend: it’s a way to avoid making efforts and incurring costs to acquire leads or clients who are not interested in your product.
What is PPC Strategy?
PPC strategy is a holistic plan that outlines how a business will use Pay-Per-Click advertising to achieve specific marketing goals. It involves a series of coordinated steps and decisions that go beyond just targeting, focusing on how to structure, execute, optimize, and measure PPC campaigns to drive the desired outcomes, such as increased traffic, leads, or sales.
How to Choose Best Targeting Strategy for PPC Ad Campaigns?
To choose the best strategy for your PPC ad campaigns, you should follow a process consisting of 10 stages and including elements like a deep understanding of your campaigns’ goals, identifying who (and why) your audience is, determining what tools, techniques, and strategies need to be involved, and, finally, performing tests, analyses, and optimization to draw data-driven conclusions for your future strategic decisions. Below, you’ll find a detailed step-by-step guide to PPC strategy selection procedure for optimal campaign results.
1. Define Your Campaign Goals
The first stage is establishing clear, measurable objectives (e.g., increasing conversions, reducing CPA, or boosting brand awareness). It determines the expected outcome of your campaign and how you will analyze your campaign performance. Remember, PPC strategy goals should be strictly related to the overall goals of your business.
Common goals include:
- increasing website traffic,
- generating leads,
- driving sales,
- boosting brand awareness,
- or promoting specific products or services.
Your goals will guide your targeting choices.
2. Understand Your Audience
The second stage is conducting thorough research to understand who your ideal customers are, including their demographics, interests, online behaviors, and purchasing patterns. Tools like:
- Google Analytics,
- EventTracker,
- Facebook Audience Insights,
- and customer surveys
can provide valuable data to help you define your target audience.
3. Platform Selection
The third stage is choosing the right advertising platforms (e.g., Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads) based on where the target audience is most active (Bing Ads are supposed to be more efficient and cost-effective in US users, while in Europe Google Ads is still the most popular digital advertising platform).
4. Choose Targeting Options Based on Audience Data
The fourth stage boils down to selecting from various targeting options such as:
- keyword targeting – ideal for search engines like Google Ads to target users based on specific search queries;
- demographic targeting – useful for targeting audiences by age, gender, income, education, and more on platforms like Facebook and Google Ads;
- location targeting – important for local businesses or campaigns focusing on specific geographic areas;
- interest and behavioral targeting – available on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to reach users based on their interests, behaviors, and activities;
- retargeting – targets users who have previously interacted with your brand or visited your website, helping to re-engage potential customers.
Choose the appropriate options depending on your audience characteristics and goals.
5. Utilize Audience Segmentation
The fifth stage is segmenting your audience based on different criteria (e.g., new vs. returning customers, high-value customers, etc.) to create more personalized and relevant ad experiences. Audience segmentation allows for more precise targeting and can improve conversion rates.
6. Leverage Lookalike Audiences
The sixth stage is not mandatory, but sometimes, it can be beneficial. For platforms like Facebook and Google, consider using lookalike audiences to reach new potential customers who are similar to your existing customer base. This can help expand your reach while maintaining relevance.
7. Set a Budget and Bidding Strategy
The seventh stage is determining your budget for the PPC campaign and choosing a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals. For example, use Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bidding for traffic-focused campaigns or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) bidding for conversion-focused campaigns.
8. Ad Creative Development
The eight stage includes crafting compelling ad copies, visuals, and calls to action that resonate with the target audience and align with campaign goals. Ads should be strong in messaging and engaging, as only that way can they generate a lot of clicks or drive further, positive actions (e.g., exploring product details or even a purchase).
9. Landing Page Optimization
The ninth step is ensuring that landing pages connected to your campaign are designed to maximize conversions through relevant content, strong CTAs, and a seamless user experience. They should be related to your search ads in terms of design and communication, as they are part of the same marketing journey (and marketing funnel on the other side, as well).
10. Test and Optimize Your Targeting
The next stage is continuously testing different ad variations, keywords, and landing pages to identify what works best. You may be a design or digital marketing expert, but nothing can replace a test on a live audience. A/B tests allow you to compare two versions of your ad, CTA, landing page, etc. to determine which one performs better (generate more clicks, conversions, etc.).
11. Monitor and Analyze Performance Metrics
The penultimate stage is keeping a close eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as CTR (Click-Through Rate), conversion rate, CPC (Cost-Per-Click), and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) to evaluate the effectiveness of your targeting strategy. Use these insights to make data-driven adjustments.
12. Adapt to Changing Trends and Audience Behavior
Finally, regularly update your targeting strategy based on evolving trends, market conditions, and changes in user behavior. PPC campaigns require continuous monitoring and optimization to remain effective.
3 Best PPC Targeting Examples
Below, I present three hypothetical targeting sequences performed with the most popular PPC advertising platforms: Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Microsoft Advertising. This also includes specific features you may find useful while deciding about your PPC targeting strategy. Let’s start!
1. Google Ads: Using Dynamic Search Ads to Target Users on SERPs
Google Ads is one of the most popular platforms for online advertising. It allows businesses to show ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for relevant products or services. One powerful targeting method within the Google Ads interface is Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs, also known as “dynamic ads”).
How does it work? Instead of creating ads for every single keyword, DSAs use content from your website to match users’ search queries with relevant ads. It takes place automatically due to leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning fed up with some historical data from Google Ads users as well as from your own ad account in their services. When a user searches for something related to your site, Google dynamically generates an ad headline and landing page that best fits the query.
Example scenario: Imagine you run an online store selling various types of shoes. With DSAs, if a user searches for “best running shoes for women”, Google might automatically generate an ad that links to your page for women’s running shoes, even if you didn’t specifically create an ad for that exact keyword. Check out the following search result with headlines and description (note especially bolded text) dynamically adjusted for the above-mentioned query:
What are the advantages of this feature over traditional, manual targeting?
- It saves time and effort by reducing the need for exhaustive keyword research.
- It helps you capture a wider range of searches, especially those you may not have initially targeted.
- Allows you to dynamically adjust your advertisers bid based on the potential value of a search, optimizing costs and improving ROI.
By using DSAs, you enable Google to do some of the heavy lifting in targeting users effectively, leading to better reach and potentially higher conversions without needing to create thousands of individual ads. This method is particularly useful for businesses with large websites or many products.
2. LinkedIn Ads: Precision Targeting for B2B Campaigns
LinkedIn Ads is a powerful platform for online advertising, especially for B2B (business-to-business) marketing. It offers several unique targeting methods (see the screenshot below) that help businesses reach highly relevant audiences based on professional attributes.
Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn allows you to target users based on their professional details such as job title, industry, company size, and even specific companies. This makes it ideal for businesses looking to reach decision-makers and professionals.
Example Scenario: If you are interested in workers with expertise in a particular position, you can perform job title targeting. Let’s suppose you are promoting a software solution for marketing teams. You can then target users who have the job title “Marketing Manager”, or “PR Lead”. Next, you can further narrow down your audience by selecting industries (e.g., Technology, Healthcare) and company sizes (e.g., 50-200 employees). This ensures that the ads reach the right people (ones who are likely interested in the product).
What are the advantages of targeted LinkedIn Ads campaigns?
- They reach users who are more likely to convert because they match the exact criteria set by the advertiser.
- They allow advertisers to optimize bids, saving money potentially invested in displaying ads to irrelevant audiences.
Pro-Tip: You can use image ads to create visually engaging content that catches attention in LinkedIn feeds. Visual ads are less prone to being overlooked.
3. Microsoft Ads: Leveraging In-Market Audiences for High-Intent Targeting
Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing Ads) offers a unique set of targeting methods that can complement your PPC strategy, especially if you’re looking to expand beyond Google. One effective strategy is using so-called in-market audiences. This is, in fact, an easy way to reach really relevant audiences who are actively looking to buy a specific type of product or service.
How does it work? Microsoft Ads uses data from its search engine to categorize users based on their search behaviors and activities. In-market audiences are groups of users who have shown interest in specific products or services by frequently searching for them.
Example Scenario: When setting up your campaign in Microsoft Ads, you can select from predefined in-market audience categories, such as “Travel Enthusiasts” or “Luxury Shoppers”. A travel agency promoting luxury vacation packages could use in-market audience targeting to reach users who have recently searched for terms like “luxury resorts” or “all-inclusive vacations”.
What are the advantages of using the in-market audiences feature in Microsoft Ads?
- It targets users who are already interested in what you offer, increasing the chances of conversions.
- It integrates with LinkedIn data, allowing for even more refined targeting by combining behavioral data with professional attributes.
- It provides flexibility in budgeting and bidding, letting advertisers optimize their spending based on expected ROI.
What are the Best PPC Targeting Companies?
The three best PPC targeting companies are Disruptive Advertising, WebFX, and KlientBoost, all operating from the USA but delivering services for clients from all around the world. Let’s check their strategies, industries served and portfolios.
1. Disruptive Advertising
Disruptive Advertising is a leading digital marketing agency known for its comprehensive and data-driven approach to PPC management. They specialize in creating, managing, and optimizing PPC campaigns across various platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and more. The agency prides itself on transparency, performance tracking, and continuous optimization to deliver the highest ROI for its clients.
PPC targeting strategies:
- Advanced Audience Segmentation: Disruptive Advertising uses sophisticated targeting techniques to segment audiences based on demographics, behavior, and purchase intent. This ensures ads are shown to the most relevant audience, minimizing wasted spend and maximizing conversions.
- A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing: The agency employs rigorous testing methodologies to determine the most effective ad copy, visuals, and calls to action, ensuring that the highest-performing versions are used.
- Custom-Built Campaigns: They tailor PPC strategies to the unique needs of each client, whether it’s a small business looking to grow or a large enterprise aiming for more granular control over ad spend and targeting.
- Remarketing and Retargeting: Disruptive Advertising is highly skilled in retargeting strategies, helping clients re-engage past visitors and drive conversions by showing tailored ads to users who have previously interacted with their website.
Industries served: E-commerce, healthcare, SaaS, legal, finance, and more.
Operating from: 2013.
Headquartered in: Pleasant Grove, Utah, USA.
Big clients: Adobe, Wearever, PennyMac, SeaSucker.
2. WebFX
WebFX is a full-service digital marketing agency that provides a robust suite of PPC management services. They are known for leveraging cutting-edge technology, proprietary tools, and in-depth analytics to create highly targeted PPC campaigns. WebFX is consistently ranked as one of the top digital marketing agencies globally, and their client base spans various industries, including healthcare, e-commerce, finance, and manufacturing.
PPC targeting strategies:
- Keyword Research and Optimization: WebFX uses advanced keyword research tools to identify the most relevant keywords and phrases for each campaign. They focus on long-tail keywords to attract highly qualified leads.
- Geo-Targeting and Local PPC: The agency specializes in local PPC targeting, helping businesses reach potential customers within specific geographic areas. This is particularly beneficial for businesses that rely on local customers, such as restaurants, service providers, and retail stores.
- Remarketing Campaigns: WebFX creates customized remarketing campaigns to reach users who have previously visited a client’s website but did not convert. This approach helps in improving conversion rates and lowering overall ad costs.
- Device Targeting and Bid Adjustments: They optimize campaigns by adjusting bids based on device performance data, ensuring the best results on desktop, mobile, and tablet.
Industries served: E-commerce, healthcare, real estate, automotive, technology, and more.
Operating from: 1996.
Headquartered in: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
Big clients: Verizon, Fujifilm, Hilton, Sysco, Subway.
3. KlientBoost
KlientBoost is a results-driven PPC management agency that focuses on maximizing conversions and ROI for its clients. Known for their creativity and innovative strategies, KlientBoost specializes in PPC, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and landing page design. The agency serves clients across various sectors, including SaaS, e-commerce, and healthcare.
PPC Targeting Strategies:
- Conversion-Centric Approach: KlientBoost focuses on bottom-line results, creating campaigns that are designed to drive conversions rather than just clicks. This involves extensive A/B testing, ad copy optimization, and landing page development.
- Cross-Platform Targeting: KlientBoost optimizes campaigns across multiple PPC platforms, such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, and social media channels, to ensure maximum reach and effectiveness. This multi-platform approach allows for precise audience targeting and increased engagement.
- Dynamic Ad Strategies: The agency leverages dynamic ads to automatically generate highly relevant ad content based on user behavior and search intent. This helps in delivering more personalized ads that are likely to convert.
- Bid Management and Smart Bidding: KlientBoost uses automated bid strategies, combined with manual oversight, to balance cost efficiency with maximum exposure, ensuring the best possible ad placement without overspending.
Industries Served: SaaS, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, education, and more.
Operating from: 2015.
Headquartered in: Costa Mesa, California, USA.
Big clients: Airbnb, Stanford University, Bloomberg, Upwork
What are the Common PPC Targeting Mistakes?
Common PPC targeting mistakes are related to selecting inappropriate keywords, reaching the wrong target audience, neglecting the ongoing optimization based on data, and inaccurate structure of the marketing funnel. Let’s elaborate more on these and a few other typical PPC targeting mistakes:
Broad Keyword Selection
Using overly broad or generic keywords can result in irrelevant clicks, wasted budget, and low-quality traffic. Advertisers should focus on more specific, long-tail keywords that align closely with their product or service.
Pro-Tip: Use a keyword planner tool to identify specific long-tail keywords that have lower competition but are highly relevant to your business. Pair this with contextual targeting to ensure your ads appear in the right context, attracting more qualified leads and reducing wasted clicks.
Neglecting Negative Keywords
Failing to use negative keywords can lead to ads being shown for irrelevant searches. Negative keywords help prevent your ads from appearing for search terms that aren’t relevant to your business, saving money and improving ad relevance.
Pro-Tip: Regularly analyze your search terms report and update your negative keyword list weekly to filter out irrelevant traffic and improve ad performance.
Incorrect Geo-Targeting
Targeting the wrong geographic locations or not specifying a location can waste budget on clicks from users outside the intended area. It’s important to refine geo-targeting to include only the locations that are relevant to your business.
Pro-Tip: Utilize geographic performance data in your PPC platform to refine targeting settings. Focus on high-performing regions and exclude areas where conversions are low or non-existent.
Overlapping Audience Targeting
Targeting multiple overlapping audiences can lead to cannibalization of ad budgets, where ads compete against each other for the same audience. This can increase costs and reduce campaign efficiency.
Pro-Tip: Use the “Audience Insights” tool to understand the overlap and unique characteristics of your target groups. Adjust bids or exclude overlapping audiences to prevent internal competition.
Ignoring Device Targeting
Not optimizing campaigns for different devices (desktop, mobile, tablet) can lead to poor user experiences and wasted spend. Ads should be tailored to perform well on the specific devices that potential customers use.
Pro-Tip: Analyze your device performance report and create separate campaigns for each device type. Customize ad copy, landing pages, and bids to optimize for desktops, mobiles, and tablets individually.
Failing to Adjust for Audience Segments
Using a one-size-fits-all approach rather than segmenting your audience by behavior, demographics, or interests can result in less effective ads. Personalized ads that cater to specific segments typically perform better.
Pro-Tip: Use custom audience segments based on behavior, demographics, and past interactions. Create tailored ad copies and offers that resonate with each specific segment to improve engagement.
Targeting the Wrong Time Zones
Not considering the time zones of your target audience can result in ads being shown at suboptimal times. Scheduling ads to appear during peak hours of engagement in your audience’s time zone can significantly improve performance.
Pro-Tip: Review time-of-day and day-of-week performance data in your account to identify peak times. Schedule your ads to run only during the most effective hours in the target audience’s time zone.
Relying Solely on Google Search Network
Focusing only on Google Search Network without considering other networks, such as Display or YouTube, limits reach and potential impact. Diversifying the placement of ads can help capture a broader audience.
Pro-Tip: Expand your reach by creating separate campaigns for Google display network, YouTube, and Gmail ads. Using different networks allows you to reach new users with varied content, ensuring broader audience coverage and potential impact.
Lack of Audience Exclusions
Not excluding certain audiences, such as existing customers or irrelevant demographics, can lead to wasted ad spend. Audience exclusions are vital to ensure ads are shown only to the most relevant potential customers.
Pro-Tip: Create exclusion lists for audiences who are already converted customers or not relevant to your offer. Regularly update these lists to ensure you are targeting only high-potential leads. Refining this process will help maintain efficient spending and avoid wasted budget.
Ignoring the Sales Funnel Stages
Using the same ad copy or targeting strategy for users at different stages of the sales funnel (awareness, consideration, decision) can reduce effectiveness. Ads should be tailored to where a user is in their buying journey.
Pro-Tip: Develop separate campaigns for different stages of the sales funnel – awareness, consideration, and decision. Use ad messaging and landing pages that speak directly to the user’s current stage. This ensures that your ads are relevant and effective at each point of the customer journey.
Insufficient Remarketing Strategies
Failing to set up remarketing campaigns can miss the opportunity to re-engage users who have previously interacted with your website or ads but didn’t convert. Remarketing can help drive conversions by reminding users of your brand.
Pro-Tip: Set up remarketing lists based on user behavior, such as those who visited high-intent pages (e.g., cart or pricing page). Tailor your ads to re-engage them with specific offers or reminders.
Poor Language Targeting
Running ads in the wrong language for a target market or not creating localized ads can result in irrelevant traffic and low engagement rates. Ads should be translated and culturally adapted for specific markets.
Pro-Tip: Conduct thorough research on the languages spoken by your target audience in different regions. Create ad copies and landing pages that are culturally relevant and accurately translated for better engagement. This will help increase relevance and click-through rates in different markets.
Not Monitoring Search Terms Report
Ignoring the search terms report in Google Ads can lead to continued ad spending on irrelevant search queries. Regularly reviewing and refining keywords based on the report can improve ad relevance and reduce waste.
Pro-Tip: Make it a routine to review your search terms report every week. Identify irrelevant queries and add them to your negative keyword list to refine targeting and minimize wasted spend.
Using Default Targeting Settings
Relying on default settings, like automatic placements or broad match keywords, without proper adjustments can lead to inefficiencies. Customizing settings to match your specific goals and audience can enhance ad performance.
Pro-Tip: Avoid using default targeting options. Instead, customize your audience settings, ad placements, and keyword match types to align with your campaign objectives for better performance.
By recognizing and addressing these common PPC targeting mistakes, advertisers can optimize their campaigns to drive more relevant traffic, improve conversion rates, and maximize their return on ad spend (ROAS).
Master PPC Targeting for High-Converting PPC Campaigns
Reaching a targeted audience efficiently is a matter of expertise and tools. Both elements are inseparable. This applies to every stage of PPC targeting, from crafting a strategy through setting bids to creating landing pages.
Fortunately, in this last matter, Landingi comes up with a solution that allows you to adapt to your audience preferences more precisely. If you already researched relevant keywords, prepared the PPC ads, and set up your account in chosen PPC services, it’s time to take the last step and build your PPC landing page as a final destination. It’s, finally, where conversion usually takes place.
In Landingi, you can create pages in a snap based on over 300 customizable templates tailored for different goals and industries, or you can build them from scratch to manually control every aspect. You can perform A/B tests or use data from EventTracker to find out the most effective versions and elements. If we complete this with a range of AI tools for content creation and mobile optimization, you will have everything you need to build high-converting pages for your PPC advertising campaigns.
Try Landingi for free and take and take your targeting efforts to the next level.
