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PPC for managed service providers

5 PPC Tips for Managed Service Providers

Jacob Brain

Author

Pay-per-click is like SEO’s big brother. SEO takes a lot of time, effort, and cultivation to reach a great ranking spot on Google. But what if you could just pay for it? That’s where PPC for managed service providers comes in.

Pay-per-click is a surprisingly low-cost way to boost your website’s search engine ranking and bring in more leads for your company. Pay-per-click advertising uses specific keywords to generate clicks to your website. As an advertiser, you only pay for the ad when you receive a click. Hence the name, pay-per-click or PPC.

PPC is a great way to generate leads, increase sales, and promote brand awareness. But PPC for managed service providers can run into obstacles such as a keyword that uses too much jargon, focusing on the wrong target market, and even a lack of time to maintain a campaign. These mistakes can derail MSP marketing efforts.

To help you navigate some of these obstacles, here are 5 tips for better PPC for managed service providers.

The All-Powerful Keyword

The keyword drives a pay-per-click campaign. When potential clients type it into the search engine, your company’s ad will appear. For managed service providers, these keywords can be hard to formulate.

From the mind of a technological expert, all of the services that you provide for your clients are vitally important and may be what a client would type into the search engine to find you. But you have to be careful not to create a keyword that uses industry-specific terms.

For example, you may want to have a keyword focused on “IT solutions” versus “managed compliance.” While the actual service that you provide may be managed compliance, most IT newbies won’t know what that means. All they know is that their network is unreliable, and they need an IT solution.

Optimize your Campaign

Once you have decided on a keyword, you can develop a campaign as based around that keyword’s theme. For example, for a keyword such as “IT solutions,” the ad groups within the campaign could be: IT security, IT maintenance, and IT backup. Each of these groups provides a more specific example of the main category: IT solutions.

Again, use as little jargon as possible in your campaign ad groups. This is what your audience will be typing into the search box to find your company. Keep in mind who your customers are and what their knowledge-base is.

You could also formulate a keyword that is very specific to your company. You have to be careful with this tactic because you don’t want to limit what will pull up your organization.

However, if used appropriately, a more specific campaign can reach an even more relevant target audience. For example, if your company is based in Frederick, MD, you can create a campaign theme around: IT Frederick Maryland. Not only does this target the most relevant geographic region to your audience, but it also means less competition with other PPC campaigns that may be similar to yours.

There could be multiple IT companies running PPC for managed service providers and using the keyword IT solutions. This PPC campaign focus may be extremely saturated, leading to more competition and less visibility for you. But if you make your keyword just a little narrower, adding in a geographic location for example, there will be less competition with other companies.

Use Negative Keywords Effectively

A negative keyword is a way of blocking an audience that may click on your ad but won’t be interested in your product. Essentially these keywords save your money for clicks that may result in leads.

One example of a negative keyword would be the word small. Let’s say someone types in “IT solutions for small company.” Normally your ad would come up, but you only service large companies. If your ad was still available, it may be clicked but would not result in a quality lead.

If you add the word “small” into your negative keyword list, then your ad will not appear on the search engine result page and you won’t have to pay for an irrelevant click.

Dedicate Consistent Time

A campaign using PPC for managed service providers can be a self-running machine. But even the most autonomous machines still need their oil changed and their gears greased.

To get the most out of your pay-per-click campaign, you’ll need to dedicate time each week to check on and improve the campaigns that you have running. Because you only pay when an ad is clicked, take the time to explore what keywords work for you. Try out different campaign formulations or different host programs.

Over time, you’ll be able to figure out exactly what makes your audience click on your ad and then you can really begin to optimize your process. Once you know what performs well, make sure you shut down under-performing campaigns that don’t generate leads.

Remember, it’s not just the clicks that matter, but the quality leads that come from them.

Know When You’re in Over Your Head

If you don’t have the time to optimize your PPC campaign for quality leads or aren’t confident in your ability to research and choose the best keyword, then don’t start a PPC campaign without backup.

It’s always helpful to have an expert on your side who can dedicate the time it takes and generate low-cost leads for your company with minimal effort on your part.

New North Can Help You.

We have certified PPC marketing experts who will work with you on your campaign and help you boost your leads through Pay-per-click digital marketing. Our service has resulted in an average of $1.51 cost per click and $66 per lead. PPC can pay for itself.

If you want our help in generating the PPC campaign that will take your company to the top, don’t hesitate to contact us today. New North is here to take the mystery out of marketing for you.

 

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