We asked 12 PPC pros their best tips, here’s what they said

Ad fraud is just one piece of the PPC pie, so while protecting your campaigns from bots and baddies is super important, there’s a whole lot more you can be doing to boost the performance of your digital campaigns.

To find out how we can take our ads to the next level, we assembled a superhero squad of PPC pros and asked them to share their best tips for paid media success. From tools that boost conversions to hacks for your ad copy, check out their expert advice and see how it can help your performance in 2023.

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1. Make Google’s Smart Bidding strategies work for you

"Apply value based bidding, and take it as far along the customer journey as you can. For example implement values for different lead types and apply a ROAS bidding strategy. If you're eCommerce and already have a ROAS bidding strategy, think about moving it to be based on margin or profit instead."
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Claire Stanley-Manock, Paid Media Director at connective3

2. Use segmentation to get granular within your campaigns

"For B2B marketers, segment your campaigns into upper and lower funnel keywords, this will allow you to prioritise higher-intent keywords which are more likely to convert."
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Luke Rose-Smith, Head of Digital Performance at Radial Path

3. Connect with fellow PPC pros

"My biggest tip would be to build your network and connect with other PPC pros. The industry is changing so quickly and it can take a while to figure out new tech advancements, keeping up with the pace of change is easiest when you're part of the community. Look for groups and events where you can meet like-minded experts."
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Thuha Wright, Director of Digital Seamstress Ltd

4. Embrace automation

"Not new to 2023, but automation will continue to accelerate and must be a part of your PPC strategy. Not just to improve results but to maintain current performance as we see ad costs rise next year with inflation.

My three biggest recommendations are to ensure you’re feeding the system with accurate signals — to take advantage of enhanced conversion tracking if you aren’t already. Look for consolidation opportunities within your account structure to run more data through fewer campaigns and make automated bidding work more effectively to improve performance. While far from perfect, ensure Pmax is part of your PPC marketing mix as no doubt this automated campaign type will continue to get stronger next year."
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Joshua Somerville, Co-Founder at Farsiight

5. Keep search intent front of mind

"My top tip for PPC campaigns is to always bear search intent in mind. It's like a superpower that unlocks insane discounts on your ads – up to 50% off with Google if you get it right. No, that's not a joke either.

Google rewards you with discounts on your ads based on the relevancy of your ads and landing pages (based on the keywords you're bidding on). Structure your campaigns and ad groups around the intent of your potential customers. For instance, those researching a problem are in a totally different frame of mind than someone ready to buy something. That's why you need to separate your top-of-funnel (ToFu) and bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) traffic. Your ToFu campaigns should be optimised to capture the attention of people who are just starting their research. Meanwhile, your bottom-of-funnel campaigns should be tailored to those who are ready to buy.

By doing this, you can make sure your ads are tailored to the right people at the right time. No more guessing games or wasted clicks - just laser-focused PPC campaigns that get results.

Taking it one step further, you can use a tool like TrafficGuard to get the most bang for your buck. It analyses ad traffic and detects bad bot clicks – so you can block them out and get refunds on those ever-rising pricey CPC campaigns."
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Josiah Roche, Digital Marketing Consultant at JRR Marketing

6. Put your pricing front and centre

“State your price point in your ad copy—this one’s especially useful for premium offers. If you have a premium product with a higher sticker price, include your price in your ad copy. This will help you pre-qualify your visitors and not shock them with the sticker price on the actual landing page.

Including expensive dollar amounts upfront in your ad copy will cut through the non-serious leads and prospects and attract visitors willing to pay the premium price. Don’t add extra pain to your visitors by shocking them on your landing page with a high price that’s undisclosed in your PPC ad copy."
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Gavin Choo, Founder of Disruptive Digital

7. Use Final URL expansion carefully

"For performance max utilisers, URL expansion is great, however, must be closely monitored. Utilising a URL report and filtering your campaign will allow you to see exactly where Performance Max is expanding your URL to, and the associated costs. Get blocking the poor performing products and none converting URLs draining the budget. This can make noticeable revenue and ROAS uplifts as a quick win.”
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Callum Leonard, Head of PPC at Embryo

8. Trust your instincts

“Use the in-platform recommendations as a guiding light. But always be in control and evaluate and analyse them against your campaign objectives.”
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Sherry Ong, Marketing Operations Manager at AWS

9. ABT: Always be testing

“No matter how *smart* they claim to be, don’t leave your PPC campaigns to chance (Performance Max included). Always be testing: if you can change it, you should be testing it.”
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Sarah Robinson, Director of Platypus Media

10. Analyse every result

“Success in performance marketing is to carefully track and analyse your campaigns to identify the most effective strategies and tactics. The more effective it is, the better the results and the lesser mistakes, the lesser the cost of the ads.”
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Hanafi Mohd Sam, Founder of Reka Studio

11. Focus on the whole pipeline

“Make sure you connect everything, even keywords, to your pipeline. Instead of looking at an overall view of your campaigns performance and metrics like clicks, you need to be able to connect your leads and sales back to individual ad campaigns, ads and keywords. Doing that will give you the power to make data-driven divisions and optimise ads based on what fuels your funnel, not what just drives clicks to your website.”
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Laura Caveney, Head of Marketing at Ruler Analytics

12. Protect yourself from ad fraud

“Improve your conversion rate by blocking invalid traffic such as competitor clicks, bots and accidental clicks to ensure that the traffic driven to your landing page is more likely to convert.”
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Chad Kinlay, Chief Marketing Officer at TrafficGuard

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