PPC Lead Generation: 10 Best PPC Lead Gen Strategies

According to Ruler Analytics, 91% of marketers place lead generation as their most important goal. Yet, creating a great PPC lead generation strategy, even for a PPC expert, takes a lot of work. What makes an excellent strategy, and which tools to use to get the best results? Read this article to find out!

Here are 10 best PPC Lead Gen Strategies:

1. Know your audience.
2. Create a compelling website 
3. Building your PPC lead generation strtegy.
4. Don’t forget about the tracking tools.
5. Test multiple advertising systems.
6. Use diverse PPC campaign formats.
7. Create mesmerizing ads.
8. Test the available AI tools built into the ad systems.
9. Use micro conversions to boost your performance.
10. Keep your budget at a safe level.
11. Be patient.

What is PPC lead generation?

PPC lead generation is a marketing strategy that aims to acquire customer data (leads) through pay-per-click campaigns.

10 Best PPC Lead Gen Strategies

Here are the 10 best approaches for setting up a successful PPC lead generation campaign. We recommend following strategies for the best results!

1. Know your audience.

The number of internet users is large and still growing, so you’ll need to be very specific when thinking of your potential customers – they will be the audience for your ads. Where do they live? How old are they? What are their likes and dislikes? What websites do they spend the most time on online? Do they like short or long video content or none at all? What are their needs that your offer can fulfil? You’ll use the answers to these questions on many levels of marketing, from choosing the ad system (Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc.) to creating the ads, so don’t forget to write it all down!

2. Create a compelling website.

The good news is that you don’t have to learn programming to create your business site – using any page builder that suits your needs and preferences is completely fine. Often, it’s better to use a page builder than to build a custom site – read on to find out why!

The website content should tell the user immediately what they can do to contact you. It’s usually best to place the contact form in the space that is visible on the site without scrolling – it’ll be harder to miss that way.

3. Don’t forget about the tracking tools.

How would you know if your PPC campaigns generate leads if you didn’t have any tracking code on your website? It would be impossible. You’ll need analytics tools to track the crucial events your users are fulfilling (known as conversions), the time they’re spending on your site, the queries they’re searching in your search bar or even the text excerpts they copy! Furthermore, the advertising systems’ many AI tools work best if paired with conversion tracking. Page builders, in general, often have some built-in function responsible for GTM or any JavaScript code installation, making it easier to use without any IT specialist’s help.

4. Test multiple advertising systems.

Okay, so let’s say you know that your target audience is people ages 20-55 living in Poland who love to do DIY projects in their free time and would be interested in your crocheting course. They’re probably using Google search to find the best offers online when they’re ready to decide. But what if they don’t know your brand? Brand awareness and trust are often the key, so maybe Meta Ads or YouTube would be the best placements to show them your ads and tell them of your unique selling proposition. You won’t know if you won’t try – so don’t restrict yourself to just one advertising space online.

5. Use diverse PPC campaign formats.

Remember when we asked you to know your customers’ needs? Now is the time to use that answer to create ads that’ll win their hearts. You may think that a simple text ad in Google Search and a single image ad on Facebook or Instagram is enough, but again – every PPC lead gen campaign is different and needs a different approach. You should check a few formats in Google Ads: Search Ads, Performance Max, Demand Gen and Video Action campaigns. In Meta Ads, the campaigns are divided by objective, so consider the following: Lead generation, Conversions (from the Leads category), Engagement and Traffic. In LinkedIn Ads, the best would be Website conversions, Lead generation, Engagement and Website visits.

6. Create mesmerizing ads.

Remember to write compelling texts and create eye-catching ads! The best way to do that is by highlighting the key advantages your competition doesn’t offer. A strategy worth considering is to appeal to the emotions of your user and include relevant numbers in the ad (“Over 1000 happy customers” or “11 years of experience” are always a good choice). Use all the ad extensions you can and fill out all the text boxes so the advertising system has enough data to test and ensure you’re using all the available ad space.

7. Test the available AI tools built into the ad systems.

Want to boost your PPC lead gen campaign performance? Check out some AI tools that all the most prominent online ads field players offer. For example, one of the strategies that are worth trying in Google Ads is power pairing (https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/performance-max-new-features/) – so test your Performance Max campaign together with Smart Bidding and broad match keywords in Search! If you don’t wholly trust the broad match, you can always run an experiment to test it 50/50 with other match types. Just choose the option from the Recommendations menu!

8. Use micro conversions to boost your performance.

Some leads – especially those in the B2B field – are harder to acquire through any marketing method, PPC included. If you double-checked all the settings and your campaign still isn’t generating any leads, try setting up tracking micro conversions, which can be any events that aren’t as valuable to you as leads but are a good indicator of a quality visit and are relevant to the user’s path. Examples can be more than 60 seconds spent on the website, clicking the button leading to the contact form or viewing the Contact page. You can then use your micro conversions for Smart Bidding optimization, so the system knows they’re important alongside the primary conversions!

9. Keep your budget at a safe level.

Nothing is worse for a campaign than dropping results instantly after some budget deficiency happens. Sometimes, in the time reports, you can see that your campaign usually stops generating impressions at a particular time of the day; at other times, there can be a funds shortage. Don’t allow any of these scenarios to happen – make sure your campaign has enough money to be visible throughout the day and the month. Otherwise, you’ll see not only a drop in impressions but a drop in conversions will follow with the rise in conversion cost, especially when using Smart Bidding, which needs to adjust every time some significant change happens (and the break in the run is a massive change for the algorithms).

10. Be patient.

The results – leads – will not be visible right away. First of all, every ad system has its delay in data collection that can take up to 24-48 hours for most of them – the data you see from the same day you check it is never complete because the reports aren’t working in real-time. Secondly, you must remember about the conversion window – it is usually set for 30 days, but in some cases, it can be as long as 60 or even 90 days. The user’s path nowadays is getting increasingly complicated, as one can click the ad, visit your site for the first time one day, and fill out the contact form two weeks later. So, give your potential customers time to get to know you. Meanwhile, you can use remarketing ads to prevent them from forgetting your brand. And finally, the AI tools that run most PPC campaigns need time to adjust their performance and learn your audience. So even if you are unhappy with the results in the first weeks of running, you could see how your campaign gains momentum in the second month if only you’d have enough cold blood to stay.

What are the benefits of PPC for lead generation?

PPC benefits for lead generation are knowledge of direct campaigns’ results thanks to conversion tracking, highly customizable ad formats that appeal to diverse audiences, a wide range of helpful tools for automation of the marketing processes, diverse media channels for a broad audience reach, significant control over the ad’s targeting and the budget of your campaign.

Which businesses gain the most from PPC lead generation?

Businesses that gain the most from PPC lead generation are the ones that are trying to maximize their results, need to have control over the target group and know what message they want to show to their customers. PPC lead generation campaigns are also great for an e-commerce shop if you want to take care of your customer’s lifetime value. Sometimes, an excellent retargeting ad aimed at newsletter sign-ups can boost sales significantly.

How does PPC strategy differ between lead generation and e-commerce?

The most significant difference is the usage of product feed – if there are no products, your ads won’t show in placements such as Google Shopping. This means that most of your budget will often be put into text ads that have, on average, a higher cost per click. Furthermore, the wide variety of products that is common in e-commerce businesses plus cheaper clicks equals, in general, easier data collection, so it is often more attainable to gain enough data for optimization of an e-commerce campaign than it is for a lead generation campaign. So, in PPC lead campaigns, you’ll more often rely on micro conversions to speed up the process initially.

Another big difference between lead generation and e-commerce strategies is landing pages. For lead generation, you must put the contact form, phone number, e-mail address and other contact information in a prominent place on a website. On the other hand, a landing page for an e-commerce shop should include subpages for products and product categories. Here are some helpful e-commerce landing page examples and e-commerce landing page templates.

Conclusions

There is no perfect lead generation strategy for all businesses you can think of, but one can absolutely master a strategy for the unique needs of their business. The keys are bulletproof analytics, a lot of tests and constant learning. PPC ad systems are forever changing, so prepare for regular adjustments in your campaign. But the foundation and first step of every good PPC lead generation campaign is your website, so don’t hesitate to create one now!