PPC Ad Campaigns and Content Marketing: How to Combine for Instant ROI (2023)

Updated September 13, 2021

At first glance, pay-per-click and content marketing might seem like opposite ideologies. PPC offers immediate ROI. Alternatively, content marketing takes time to gain momentum.

But the two can work together. PPC can act as a secret weapon for your content marketing, powering your content campaigns and giving you an edge over your competition.

get attention and trust

Marketers often runFacebook Adsfor very specific demographic groups. They redirect those who click on the ad to an optimized landing page that includes sales text, product photos, FAQs, reviews, security badges, and other trusted items. Your goal is to get the lead forClick the Add to Cart buttonConveniently placed for maximum visibility and later to complete the purchase.

However, marketers often have tunnel vision when it comes to optimizing their PPC landing pages for purchase conversions. Even if your PPC campaigns are successful in driving people to your site, those visitors may feel like a waste of a click because marketers haven't focused their efforts on making visitors feel at home, only on welcoming them to encourage conversion.

Don't waste #PPC ads. Make users feel at home with relevant #content, says @IAmAaronAgius via @CMIContent. #PayPerClickAdvertising #ContentDistributionclick to tweet

In a recent poll57%of consumers said they are willing to buy from brands they trust. Before someone makes a purchase from an unfamiliar company, they often scan other pages of the website for any indication of legitimacy. Have a frequently updated blog with manyquality contentand social proof indicators (lots of comments and social shares) demonstrate credibility and build the trust needed to ultimately drive conversions.

CARRY:PPC can be used to draw attention to your website while content marketing can be usedbuild up trustonce these new visitors have arrived.

#PPC draws attention to your website. #ContentMarketing builds trust once it happens, says @IAmAaronAgius of @CMIContent. #PayPerClickAdvertising #ContentDistributionclick to tweet

Laser aim to attract content fans

content marketingIt's sometimes used as a shotgun approach to brand exposure: upload content regularly and hope your core buyer reads it and eventually becomes a paying customer.

While content marketing offers long-term benefitsSEO Benefits, which eventually help buyers find you in the short term, content marketing often requires broad targeting.

For example,guest bloggingis a common tactic in content marketing. But when an infographic design agency guest posts on a digital marketing blog, only a fraction of readers are likely to be interested in hiring an agency to create visual content for their brand.

but with documentBuyer Personality, you can laser target your content via a PPC campaign since you have analyzed the demographics (age, gender, geography, interests) of previous customers. You can exclude unlikely buyers and include likely buyers in your content promotions.

Target your #content promotion through a #PPC campaign, says @IAmAaronAgius via @CMIContent. #PayPerClickAdvertising #ContentDistributionclick to tweet

For example, let's say you sell mixed martial arts clothing. They want to appeal to fans of former UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. While this type of targeting is better than nothing, it still doesn't get you in front of the right people.

Since his name transcends sports, many people who like Conor on Facebook may only see mixed martial arts when he competes, or simply enjoy updates on his flamboyant lifestyle and have no interest in the sport. In other words, Conor McGregor's Facebook fans wouldn't be ideal customers for your clothes.

Let's say instead that it appeals to fans of fighters who have less mainstream recognition but are highly respected in the mixed martial arts niche, like Jorge Masvidal at #4 welterweight. It's highly unlikely that anyone would be a fan of Jorge without having a deep affinity for the sport, so this alignment makes the most sense. By announcing your content to these fans, your response will be much higher.

CARRY:Laser-targeted PPC campaigns can be used to ensure your content reaches the most desirable potential customers.

Test your content items

Split-Testis an essential part of a successful PPC ad campaign, but the tactic can work for content marketing as well.

Split testing is critical to running a successful #PPC ad campaign, says @IAmAaronAgius via @CMIContent. #PayPerClickAdvertising #ContentDistributionclick to tweet

For PPC campaignsLanding page elementssuch as images, sales text, the placement of the "add to cart" button or email opt-in form, social proof, and value propositions can all be tested.

By using content split testing, you can test things like your blog layout, tone of voice, and moreTitular-. It's best to test for at least a week and add multiple blog posts to ensure your results reflect actual user preferences.

Metrics like clicks, time on page, conversions and shares can be used to determine the winners of your split tests. If you use a heat mapping tool such asInspection, you may want to record how far the average user scrolls down each page variant.

You can also test the length of blog posts. WhileLonger blog posts generally perform better than shorter ones., no audience is the same. Split testing helps you understand the situation with your audience. Upload two versions of your post: a long one (1,500 words or more) and a shorter, more concise version. Use Facebook Ads to target your key demographics and send paid traffic to Pages andOutcome monitoring. Do this with multiple blog posts to ensure any trends you discover are universally applicable.

CARRY:Use the PPC split test to gauge your audience's preferences for blog layout, tone of voice, article length, and headlines.

Promote special content

As any marketer knows, your “best” content doesn’t always generate the greatest engagement. If you ever run onecontent check, it can be confusing to determine why some articles went viral while others flopped.

If you have committed significant resources to produce specialized content, such asinfographic, e-book, video, etc., it is unacceptable to roll the dice whether it gets attention.

If you run a FacebookPage Post Engagement AnnouncementTo promote your specific content, you'll get inexpensive likes, posts, and shares, especially if you're smart with your targeting as discussed above. If your content is truly great, you'll get organic reach, fueled by engaged paid traffic.

including onecall to actionin the text field of the ad, such as B. "Tag a friend who would like this" asks users to show the content to their friends (as long as they find it valuable) to drive more exposure to your content without additional advertising costs.

ADVICE:Alternatively, Page Post Engagement Ads can be used to promote already well-performing content. PPC ads can bring content (and your brand) to aeven wider audience.

click to tweet

CARRY:When you use Page Post Engagement Ads on Facebook to promote specific content that is highly valuable for paid traffic, your organic reach will also grow.

Go with your audience

Even if you ignore all of the other tips in this article, this is by far the strongest.

Too many businesses never engage after a visitor has viewed the site and left without interacting. However, all of these people could be potential customers who, for whatever reason, didn't get in touch on their first visit.

use forwarding. For example, in ecommerce PPC campaigns, retargeting is commonly used to promote discount offers to people who have added a product to their cart but not completed the purchase. They use the ad to send them back to the purchase page.

In terms of content, however, you can use retargeting via a Facebook ad to promote a contextually relevant blog post to someone who has added one of your products to their cart but hasn't completed the purchase.

Retarget a lost buyer with a #PPC ad promoting relevant #content, says @IAmAaronAgius via @CMIContent. #PayPerClickAdvertising #ContentDistributionclick to tweet

For example, if you sold hair care products, your retargeting ad might promote ahow to poston the steps to achieve shiny and healthy hair. The article could include a subtle mention of your product, but the goal should be to provide quality, actionable advice. By sending people to a helpful blog post, you not only increase conversions but also help build long-term customer relationships that can be leveraged for repeat business.

Alternatively, you can retarget people who engaged with a specific blog post with a PPC ad promoting a contextually relevant product.

ADVICE:To installFacebook-Pixel, a small line of code on every page of your site to track and retarget people based on how they've interacted with your brand.

CARRY:Use PPC retargeting ads to promote relevant content to someone who has abandoned the checkout process.

I hope you can use these PPC tips to take your content marketing efforts to the next level.

Can you think of other ways to improve content marketing with PPC? Please let me know in the comments.

All tools mentioned in blog posts are marked by the author. Feel free to add additional tools in the comments.

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Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute