Mistakes people make with PPC for expensive products

Google Ads introduced a completely new ball game in the world of digital marketing – having to limit your use of characters and keywords in creating paid advertising campaigns that hit the target with audiences. That is why most companies looking to create campaigns without wasting resources rely on the knowledge and advice of professional PPC agencies. The task at hand is all the more complex when it comes to paid advertising strategies for luxury products. In this article, we are going to explore some of the mistakes people make with PPC for expensive products.

PPC for expensive products as a digital marketing strategy

In our previous article, we discussed the topic of luxury marketing strategies and what the best course of action is when it comes to advertising high-end products. Much like with other types of products and services, marketing to luxury customers uses similar principles. The only real difference is in customizing your content to match the unique needs of high-end clients. Going with a PPC approach has proven to be a great method for expanding audiences and increasing sales in short periods of time. It has proven to be especially useful in highly-competitive industries and during peak sales season.

Five mistakes people make with PPC for expensive products

Although more commonly practices by eCommerce businesses, service-oriented companies also make great use of Google Ads. However, not all companies are as successful when it comes to paid advertising strategies. And this can be a stressful matter, given that you are pouring money into a channel of advertising that should provide instant results but sometimes doesn’t. So, what makes your competitors more successful when it comes to PPC campaigns. Start by exploring the following faulty perspectives when it comes to advertising expensive products:

#1: Not defining clear goals

This falls under the most common mistakes people make with PPC, not only for expensive products but for all products and services. Brands that promote and sell high-end products rely on the height of their investments in ads to keep their sales going. And they often neglect to define any goals or expectations in terms of results. The reasoning behind this is the simplistic point of view:

• “We want to boost our number of leads and increase sales. What else is there?“

The truth is that the notion of PPC goes much deeper than this transparent point of view. Not all leads are equal, especially not those that are interested in luxury products/services. And so, you want to be able to define a clear goal in terms of the number and quality of leads you want in exchange for a certain amount of resources that you invest. Establishing long-term goals helps you keep sight of the finish line while constantly gathering useful data about consumers.

How do you prevent this PPC mistake from happening?

• Identify the traits of your ideal customer. Based on the product you’re selling, you need to look at the type of people that are most likely to use that product. Research their behavior patterns, the keywords they commonly use, the type of content they respond to most, the advertising channel they use most, etc.
• Gain a better understanding of your market. Consider just how competitive your market is and research the products that your brand is up against. Do a competitive analysis and check what your competitors are using in their advertising campaigns in terms of keywords and budgets.
• Set your goals. Consider the types of conversions you are looking for. Put a number on your daily advertising budget and define a timeline for investing in your PPC campaigns. Think of the number of visitors you are hoping to attract to your website as well as the conversion rate you are looking to achieve. One of the common digital marketing mistakes businesses make is not setting up SMART goals.
• Gather data for further analysis. Simply running a successful campaign is not enough on its own. You need to discover what makes it successful by analyzing its performance. By looking at the number of leads, their cost, and origin – you can draw conclusions to help you in future endeavors when it comes to advertising your product.

#2: Neglecting the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

One of the mistakes people make with PPC for expensive products is to focus on the amount of money they earn per dollar spent on Google Ads. Although a useful statistic to have, it communicates nothing in terms of the relationship between brand and customers. And so, rather than focus your efforts on the mere profitability of your ads campaign, you need to look at the bigger picture. That is where the Customer lifetime value comes into play.

Not only can you learn a lot about the awareness of your brand through this metric but you can also develop growth strategies based on the data you gather from it. Whether you are looking for ways to attract the right crowd to your website or exploring ideas on how to retain existing customers – CLV offers a strong foundation for accomplishing just that.

#3: Improper choice and use of keywords

High-end products are rarely unique products. They are simply products that fall under a more expensive price range category. That is why you need to go past spending an hour or two on choosing the keywords to bid for in your PPC campaigns. Researching, refining, and choosing the keywords for your product ads is a delicate and strategic process. Consider the following factors when going through this process:

Bidding on keywords that have no value

This is a common misconception for PPC novices – trying to cover the widest range possible when it comes to keywords for their product/services. The mistakes here lies in the simple fact that quality leads to the quantification of leads – and not the other way around. Simply by spreading your resources as wide as possible won’t guarantee you a higher volume of leads. And even in cases where it does happen, you end up with low-quality leads that rarely convert.

In order to avoid this example of mistakes people make with PPC for expensive products, all you need to do is adjust your focus. Target keywords with a strong purchase intent or those that show a good engagement ratio with people researching the type of product you’re selling. By pushing most of your budget into a limited number of high-conversion keywords, you can guarantee a better conversion rate, especially when it comes to advertising high-end products.

Unnecessary brand bidding

Luxury companies that target high-end consumers tend to rely on the strength of their brand when creating PPC campaigns. The logic here is that by using the brand name, they will be in a better position to dominate the search engine rankings page. When the truth is that you are more likely to create a conflict between your paid advertising and SEO strategy.

If you’ve already built up a strong enough brand to draw in organic traffic that is free, there is no need to spend resources on splitting that traffic with your paid ads. The only scenario for making this call would be to protect against competitors looking to bid on your brand name through their ads. Otherwise, you should always focus on keywords that are more related to your products/services.

Not establishing a negative keyword list

Once you do all the research and come up with a winning formula in terms of your target keywords, you will want to eliminate all the negative ingredients that might drop into the mix. That is what a negative keywords list is for – to help you track and avoid popping up on ads for keywords that you don’t want your products to show up for. By creating and following your negative keywords list, you reduce the chances of paying for irrelevant clicks on ads, saving you money and time on irrelevant leads. This also allows you to create more accurate and focused ads that will:

• Generate more quality leads;
• Improve Ad Group relevancy;
• Reduce unnecessary ad spend;
• Avoid self-competing ads;
• Boost ROI.

Other uses for landing pages include:

• Tracking KPIs. Having a landing page makes it simpler to monitor metrics such as time spent on a page, number of page views, traffic source, bounce rate, conversion rate, etc. It is the easiest way to establish how good or bad your page is performing.
• Learning. The amount and quality of data that a landing page offers are very wide. Whether you are looking to learn more about your target audience or interested in boosting your digital marketing efforts – landing pages can provide you with all the information you need.
• Credibility. High-conversion landing pages that are well thought out show that a business understands its customers. Not only that but it is also willing to take additional steps to answer the needs of consumers. And that is something that modern users value and are willing to share with others in the form of social media shares, online reviews, testimonials, etc. These are all valuable resources to help boost the awareness and credibility of your brand.

To get the most out of your landing pages, you need to consult with PPC professionals. But to get you started, make sure that each page is an exact match to the ad leading to it. Landing pages need to have a singular focus with an engaging design, responsive, and optimized for SEO.