But of course, even the strongest marketing tactics work better when they’re optimized for success — and we’re here to help your adventure brand make that happen.
11 ways to elevate your paid search strategy
If you’re looking to crank up the conversions your paid search campaigns deliver, be sure your strategy incorporates these 11 powerful tactics:
1. Employ the right keywords
By implementing the right keywords in your PPC campaigns, you can ensure that your ads are reaching the most relevant audiences, increasing the likelihood of clicks and conversions. Proper keyword selection helps optimize your ad spend by targeting users who are actively searching for products or services you offer, thereby improving your return on investment (ROI). Additionally, using well-researched keywords enhances the relevance of your ads, which can lead to a higher Quality Score on platforms like Google Ads. This not only lowers your cost-per-click (CPC) but also improves your ad placement, making your campaign more effective overall. Utilizing tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush and SpyFu can help you further refine your keyword strategy by providing insights into search volume, competition and keyword trends, putting the power of data behind the keyword choices you make for your paid search campaigns.
2. … and revisit them regularly
The digital landscape and consumer behavior are constantly evolving, meaning that the effectiveness of keywords can change over time — and making it important to regularly reevaluate the keywords used in your PPC campaigns. In addition, statistics show that roughly 15% of Google searches each day are brand new, meaning that they’ve never been searched before. By routinely analyzing and updating your keyword list, you can identify new opportunities, eliminate underperforming terms and stay ahead of market trends. This proactive approach also helps optimize your ad spend, enhance ad relevance and improve overall ROI. Further, ongoing keyword evaluation allows your performance outdoor brand to respond to seasonal variations and shifts in search intent (a particularly important consideration in the often seasonally driven outdoor industry), helping ensure your paid search campaigns remain competitive and effective.
3. Don’t overlook negative keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches, reducing wasted ad spend on clicks that are unlikely to convert, and thereby maximizing the efficiency and targeting accuracy of your paid search ads. This helps ensure that your budget is focused on more qualified traffic, leading to higher conversion rates and better ROI. Negative keywords also help improve your ads’ Quality Score by increasing their relevance, which can lower your cost-per-click (CPC) and enhance your ad placement.
4. … and long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are more specific and typically longer phrases that users search for, often indicating a higher intent to purchase or engage. For example, long-tail keywords that a producer of camouflage hunting gear may want to employ could include “Evterra Tundra camo jacket” or “buy Evterra Tundra camo jacket near me” (as opposed to simply “camo jacket”). By targeting such long-tail keywords, your active lifestyle brand can reach niche audiences with precise needs, leading to lower competition, reduced cost-per-click and a higher return on investment. Additionally, long-tail keywords help improve the relevance of your paid search ads, which can enhance your Quality Score and overall ad performance.
5. Elevate your ad copy
Employing compelling copy in your paid search and PPC campaigns is another way to elevate their performance. One way to achieve this is to test multiple versions of your ad copy (more on that below), which allows you to identify what resonates best with your audience, enabling you to optimize performance over time. Additionally, incorporating special offers or promotions in your ad copy can significantly boost interest and engagement, providing users with an extra incentive to choose your product or service. Further, including keywords in your headline and display URL helps improve ad relevance and Quality Scores, making your ads more likely to be seen by your target audience. And including clear and specific calls-to-action (CTAs) guides users toward desired actions, increasing the likelihood of clicks and conversions. Still another way to elevate your ad copy is to leverage what Google calls ad “assets,” which include Sitelinks, Snippets, Callouts, Brand Name/Logo, Images, Call Extensions, Promotions Extensions, Price Extensions, etc. These can boost the amount of retail space your brand’s ad takes up on the search engine results page (SERP), so try to implement as many as possible.
6. Take advantage of A/B testing
By testing different elements of your paid search ads such as ad text, headlines, CTAs and landing pages via A/B testing, you can identify which variations resonate best with your target audience. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions to improve click-through rates, conversion rates and, ultimately, campaign effectiveness. A/B testing also helps uncover insights into user preferences and behaviors, enabling you to continuously refine and enhance your paid search campaigns for better results over time.
7. Keep tweaking your target audience
Because consumer behaviors, preferences and market trends evolve over time, it’s important to adapt the targeting strategies of your paid search campaigns regularly. By continuously refining your audience parameters based on demographic data, geographic location, interests and behaviors, you can help ensure that your ads are reaching the most relevant and engaged audience segments. It can also help you identify new opportunities and better tailor your messaging to specific customer segments, leading to more effective and impactful advertising campaigns.
8. Level up your landing pages
A well-designed landing page that aligns with your paid search ad’s messaging and offers a seamless user experience can significantly impact conversion rates. By optimizing landing pages to be visually appealing, easy to navigate and focused on the desired action you’re seeking from consumers, whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a form or signing up for a service, you can increase the likelihood of converting clicks into leads or sales. Further, optimizing landing pages for mobile responsiveness and fast load times is essential for catering to users across various devices and ensuring a positive user experience, ultimately leading to a higher ROI on your advertising investment. And to make incorporating and optimizing landing pages even more appealing, landing page experience and relevance are also factors in Google’s ad rankings.
9. Optimize for voice search
With the rise of virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa, more users are conducting searches using natural language queries. So by optimizing your paid search and PPC campaigns for voice search, you can capture this growing segment of users and stay ahead of the curve in digital marketing. This involves understanding how people phrase voice searches differently from text searches and tailoring your keywords, ad copy and landing pages to include more conversational, long-tail phrases that mirror how people naturally speak. Additionally, ensuring your website is optimized for local search and featured snippets can increase your chances of appearing in voice search results.
10. Rev up results with remarketing
Remarketing with your paid search and PPC campaigns allows your outdoor enthusiast brand to re-engage with users who have previously interacted with your website or mobile app. By targeting these past visitors with tailored ads, you can stay top-of-mind and encourage them to return to complete a purchase or take another desired action. Remarketing helps reinforce brand awareness, increases conversion rates and maximizes the effectiveness of your advertising budget by focusing on users who have already shown interest in your products or services. Additionally, it enables you to deliver personalized messaging and offers based on users’ previous interactions, enhancing the overall user experience and driving increased ROI.
11. Keep a close eye on your results … and learn from them
By closely tracking the metrics of your paid search and PPC campaigns such as click-through rates, conversion rates, cost-per-click and return on ad spend, you can gain valuable insights into campaign effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Regular analysis of campaign data allows you to identify trends, patterns and areas of underperformance, enabling you to adjust your tactics accordingly. Whether it’s refining keyword targeting, optimizing ad copy or adjusting bidding strategies, ongoing monitoring and optimization helps ensure that your campaigns remain aligned with your marketing goals and deliver the best possible results.
Could your outdoor enthusiast brand use the help of a team of active lifestyle-obsessed marketing experts to more effectively plan and execute its paid search strategy? At TBA Outdoors, our PPC strategy pros leverage research and data to ensure every paid search campaign we create hits the mark — and we can do the same to elevate the results of your existing campaigns.
Further, as a fully integrated marketing firm, we can cover all of your brand’s marketing needs in one place. Whether you’re looking for help in areas like paid search, branding strategy, research and analytics or need assistance with creative, social media, e-commerce, public relations, video production and more, we’ve got you covered. To explore how we can help your outdoor brand elevate the effectiveness of all of its marketing efforts, reach out to our team of outdoors-obsessed marketing pros today.
