A PPC marketing plan is a strategic outline for running pay-per-click ad campaigns. Learn how to create a custom plan that sets you up for success.
Most brands want to improve traffic, lower ad spend, and up their revenue.
One proven solution? An effective PPC marketing plan.
While it can be a big undertaking, the right strategy makes the results well worth the investment.
To give you a behind-the-scenes look at what makes a PPC marketing plan successful, we turned to HawkSEM Search Engine Marketing Manager Ian Dawson. Below, he reveals the strategies that deliver real results for our clients.
A PPC marketing plan is a strategic outline for running ad campaigns on online advertising platforms. (Image: Unsplash)
What is a PPC marketing plan?
A PPC marketing plan is a strategic outline for running ad campaigns on online advertising platforms (like Google Ads and Bing Ads).
A PPC advertising strategy involves:
- Setting goals
- Identifying your audience
- Conducting keyword research
- Setting a budget
- Creating ad copy and assets
- Building landing pages
- Structuring ad campaigns
- Selecting bidding strategies
- A/B testing
- Optimizing campaigns
Effective PPC marketing strategies tell you what success looks like and how to interpret your results.
While Google Ads is the most prominent PPC platform, digital marketers can build a PPC marketing plan for Microsoft Bing Ads, Amazon, as well as social media platforms like Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads.
How to create a PPC marketing plan
Below, we’ll take you through how to create a PPC marketing plan, step-by-step.
1. Determine performance goals
Consider your overarching business and marketing goals and how PPC can help achieve those desired outcomes.
Then, identify what those metrics for success look like.
It’s easy to jump to “more revenue, please,” which a PPC plan can certainly accomplish. But you should get as specific as possible with your performance goals.
Think about smaller areas of your business that you’d like to improve. For example, are you looking to sell more of a product with excessive inventory? Or maybe you’re itching to target a specific audience.
Other common performance goals include:
- Increased brand awareness
- New customers or remarketing to leads
- Reduced ad spend
- Improving niche authority
- Getting new leads
How to create marketing goals
We like using SMART goals for our PPC marketing strategies: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
For example: We can reframe the goal of “getting more leads” to “achieving 50% more leads within three months.”
This is exactly what we achieved for our client, California State University, Northridge.
You can even take it a step further and distill “leads” into “sales calls,” “newsletter signups,” or “more website traffic.”
Determine your starting point before launching campaigns. This baseline helps track progress and serves as a reference for staff training.
“As Google Ads continues to hide more data behind the curtain, like limiting search query data, it will become more important to keep goals fluid,” says Dawson. “Goals can change based on success, too.”
Bottom line? Set clear goals, but be willing to adapt and change them as needed.
2. Clearly define your target audience
Your target audience is the group of people who would most benefit from your product or solution.
These potential customers have a specific pain point or problem that your offering helps them solve. To tailor your PPC strategy to reach them, it’s important to be specific about who they are.
Start with a core audience
For example, let’s say you started a parenting SaaS platform and your main audience is moms of newborns. Ask questions like:
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- What’s their household income?
- How do they spend their limited time?
Then, consider secondary audiences — perhaps babysitters, educators, dads, and grandparents could benefit from your offer, too.
Pro tip: Create audience personas for your largest demographic, but be careful not to get too broad. Google cautions against the “everyone” audience, as you could end up appealing to “no one.”
Build detailed audience personas
Use the following factors to create comprehensive personas:
- Age: You could have a range here, such as moms aged 25-39, or have a cap. For example, men over the age of 45.
- Relationships and family: Are they married? Single parents? Do they have other kids?
- Income: Your marketing strategy and language will vary depending on whether your audience makes $30,000+ versus $120,000+.
- Occupation: If you can determine your audience’s careers and professions, that’s great. If not, focus on general fields, i.e. healthcare, hospitality, arts, or law.
- Education: High school diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, trade school? This is important information to inform your strategy. And if you can figure out majors, that’s a bonus.
- Location: Is your audience local, or do you ship products overseas or across state lines?
- Hobbies and interests: Sports, crafts, tech, fitness, and fashion are a few examples. But get even more specific. Would they attend a yoga class on Saturdays? Are they in a book club? Part of a community volunteer program?
- Political and social values: Think about what your audience believes in. This isn’t limited to political party affiliation. What social issues do they care about? What are their values and ethics?
- Pain points: What problems do they face, and how does your product or service solve those problems?
- Buyer behavior and spending habits: Do they buy from you or your competitors? In either scenario, what do they buy, and how much do they spend? You could also include buying factors that influence their purchases, such as price, convenience, or sustainability.
How to gather audience data
Here are just a few ways you can gather this information to inform your buyer personas:
- Existing customer data
- Purchase history
- Focus groups
- Interviews
- Surveys
- Customer interaction data and feedback
- Product reviews
- Competitor analysis
- A customer journey map
3. Perform keyword research
Keyword research identifies the terms your audience is searching for so your ads appear in front of the right people.
Start with seed keywords: Use a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to generate a list of potential PPC keywords to target with your ads.
Here’s an example of a seed keyword you might start with if you sell organic skincare products:
Expand and filter: You’ll see thousands of relevant keywords. Use the filters to narrow down your search and find the most relevant keywords.
In this case, we might choose the keywords that relate to “products” if that’s what we sell.
Narrow down your list: Now, you should have a list of specific keywords you can target with your PPC campaigns. To narrow the list down even further, find keywords that have a good balance between relevance and cost.
Identify negative keywords: Finally, create a list of negative keywords that you don’t want to rank for. This will help reduce the number of irrelevant clicks on your PPC ads.
4. Scope out competitor PPC campaigns
Who are the leaders in your industry?
Pay close attention to the specifics of their campaigns, including:
- Landing pages
- Short- and long-tail keywords
- Ad copy and messaging
- Overall campaign strategy
How can you mine these vital kernels of info?
Our proprietary tech, ConversionIQ, collects and organizes all of this data. Still, an afternoon of scrolling will reveal important insights about your competition’s approach and why it’s attracting your target audience.
Further reading: How to Do a PPC Competitor Analysis: 7 Tools (+ Checklist)
Start with keywords
PPC tools like Semrush and SpyFu provide insight into your competitors’ keyword strategies, including what they’re bidding on and how much they’re spending.
You can also see how long they’ve targeted specific keywords and the performance those bids appear to generate.
With this information, you can make more informed decisions for your own PPC strategy — whether that means pulling back on keywords that exceed your budget or doubling down on opportunities you can afford to compete for.
Get ideas from landing pages
If competitor landing pages look flawlessly aligned with their respective ads and seem personalized, they likely achieve more conversions.
But don’t narrow your sights to just the top results. Zoom out a bit and seek competitors that might match your company size and unique attributes, even if they’re a bit lower on the food chain.
When gathering competitor inspiration, a SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — is a great approach.
“Competing on the same keywords means having to differentiate yourself in the ad copy and the landing page,” says Dawson.
“It is vital to educate the user, via your ad copy and landing page, of your company’s USP, a unique selling position.”
“Even if you are bidding on the same terms as a competitor, your unique solutions or benefits will help your ad compete in search results.”
Dawson advises marketers to review competitor ads in both search results and third-party tools like Semrush or SpyFu.
Analyze campaign types
Finally, examine the types of ad formats your competitors gravitate toward. Do they use more display ads or shopping ads than text ads?
This can offer strong clues about what’s working in your industry and where there may be room to stand out.
5. Create your ads
Now, it’s time to create your ads. The goal is to create concise ad copy (and compelling visuals are applicable) that clearly communicates the value of your product or service.
Again, you can look to your competitors for ad copy ideas and inspiration using tools like Semrush or even just doing some serious Google searching.
Your strategy for creating high-converting PPC ad creative will depend on the type of PPC ads and the platform.
In general, here are some things to keep in mind when creating PPC ad copy:
Make the value clear. Make the value of your offer clear in both the headline and the ad copy for search ads. The copy should answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”
Highlight the benefits. Rather than focusing on your product’s features, highlight the benefits. Things like saving money or time can go a long way in enticing someone to click on your ad.
Add social proof. People are more likely to trust businesses that offer social proof like customer ratings, reviews, stats, and testimonials. Use these in your ad creative to instantly build trust.
Ad copy should align with your landing page copy. You want to provide a seamless experience as the user goes from reading your ad to looking at your landing page. Use similar language and the same voice across both.
Be clear and concise. You’ve got a limited amount of characters you can use to get your point across. So make every word count by using clear, concise language and words that appeal to emotion or logic.
If you’re creating PPC ads with a visual component (such as Shopping ads, video ads, or ads on the display network), use high-quality images that are compelling while still clearly and accurately representing the product or service.
6. Set a total (and daily) budget
A budget is vital for your PPC marketing plan since search engine marketing (SEM) costs can really add up. Without one, you could waste ad spend or choose ineffective bid strategies.
Money matters, and having a realistic PPC budget gives your PPC marketing strategy the direction it needs to reach its goals efficiently.
How to break down your budget
- Total budget: Consider your overall marketing budget, and flesh out what you can reasonably allocate to PPC marketing campaigns.
- Daily budget: This is the amount of money you’ll spend each day on a PPC campaign.
- Cost-per-click (CPC): Research competitive figures in your niche to gauge what your PPC ads will cost you. Then, fine-tune your budget to fit your goals and strategy.
Dawson says that budget estimates align with keyword research and competitive reviews, especially for the high click costs of competitive keywords.
“How much value does a lead, and ultimately a customer, bring to your company? These will be important figures to be aware of as your budget will dictate the number of leads you can get,” says Dawson.
Factor in business size and model
The right budget for a small business will be different from that of a Fortune 500 company.
“Ecommerce accounts will have similar considerations for sales, including the cost of goods sold and profit margins for each product campaign,” says Dawson.
If you’re a startup working with a limited marketing budget, consider ad scheduling.
This makes your ad campaigns active on certain dates and times throughout the week, eliminating non-optimal periods when your target audience might not be online.
Use tools to refine spend
Google’s Keyword Planner is another valuable budgeting tool. It shows you your target keywords and the average CPC for each one.
Decide whether you want to spend more on expensive keywords or maximize the less popular ones.
Staying competitive can help you reach a broader audience — but targeting less competitive keywords can unlock niche opportunities, often resulting in stronger visibility and more efficient spend.
7. Review results and tweak your PPC plan
Your first PPC campaigns won’t be perfect. But early results provide helpful data to optimize and improve performance over time.
Run A/B tests
Use A/B testing to determine which keywords and ad groups generate the most traffic, or which times of day are busiest for landing page hits. Other items you could compare with split tests include:
- CTAs (calls to action)
- Quality Scores
- Conversion tracking
- Ad copy
- Landing pages
- Ad extensions
Google recommends running tests for two weeks and focusing on one to two items at a time. This will provide the most accurate insights so you can easily identify results.
Try not to evaluate too many PPC items in your A/B tests, or you risk diluting your insights.
“In order to cross the threshold into statistical significance, your experiment will have to record enough data,” says Dawson.
“An A/B test that gets hundreds of clicks in a day will reach significance on the shorter side of the testing time frame, while an account that records 100 clicks in a month will be on the longer side of the testing time frame.”
Further reading: What is A/B Testing? How To Use It + Expert Advice
Adjust bids and revisit goals
Once you’ve gathered performance data, revisit the goals you set at the start of your PPC plan.
Ask:
- What’s working well?
- What needs to change to maintain or improve performance?
Some campaigns may exceed expectations, while others may require a pivot based on real-world results. If your data shows that original goals were unrealistic or too conservative, adjust them accordingly.
The key is to use performance insights to make informed, ongoing optimizations rather than sticking rigidly to your original plan.
Ready to track your PPC campaigns? Use these PPC tracking tips and tools.
Sample PPC marketing strategies: 5 success stories
Here, we share real-life examples of successful PPC marketing strategies that we’ve used for our clients.
No matter your goals, these strategies and results will inspire your next PPC marketing plan.
- Scaling ThriftBooks’ marketing plan to keep up with fast growth
- Researching and speaking to Peer Software’s target audience
- Constant performance monitoring to inform California State University, Northridge’s marketing plan
- Optimizing keywords via competitive analysis for Verizon Media
- Remarketing for 686’s winter apparel ecommerce store
1. Scaling ThriftBooks’ marketing plan to keep up with fast growth
(Image: Thriftbooks)
Media ecommerce shop ThriftBooks faced a challenge when rapid expansion pushed its existing marketing strategy past its limits.
With a larger budget and more demand, ThriftBooks needed to adapt its marketing plan to fit the needs of all its new customers.
Our first step was understanding what their latest customers were interested in to update their targeting options.
After a bit of A/B testing and multi-touch attribution (assessing every point of the conversion journey), we discovered a product niche with a 50% higher average order value (AOV).
We also noticed a shift in the conversion window, meaning we had a specific new timeframe to market to and capture new leads.
Strategies:
- Multi-touch attribution to gain insights into the conversion window and customer journey
- More engagement and audience research to discover more profitable product niches
Results:
- 50% higher order value for one niche product revealed
- Maintain internal target ROAS
- Increase YoY click-through rate (CTR) by 35%
2. Researching and speaking to Peer Software’s target audience
(Image: Peer Software)
Data management software client Peer Software struggled to identify and reach its target audience.
For example, they assumed their target audience exclusively leveraged Google; however, our audience research revealed that they also spent time on Bing — meaning we needed to create ad campaigns for both to reach Peer Software’s audience.
Additionally, we revamped their ad description and landing page copy to better speak to searchers’ pain points and present Peer Software as the obvious solution.
Strategies:
- Cross-platform advertising for Google and Bing
- Ad copy that directly speaks to audience pain points
Results:
- 128% increase in conversions
- Over 46% decrease in cost per conversion (CPC)
- 126% increase in website clicks
3. Constant performance monitoring to inform California State University, Northridge’s marketing plan
(Image: CSUN)
A PPC marketing plan must evolve as performance data becomes available. What looks good on paper doesn’t always translate in real time.
For example, you may set a daily budget for ad bids — only to discover certain days of the week consistently underperform. Adjusting your plan to eliminate wasted spend is essential to protecting your return on investment (ROI).
This adaptability is non-negotiable for every single one of our clients, including California State University, Northridge.
We noticed they were spending too much money on marketing for programs that weren’t seeing much enrollment.
Every change we made — from new ad copy and ad campaign schedules to remarketing and negative keywords — was informed by the data we collected through ConversionIQ.
Reduced CPA, doubled lead volume, and a 50% increase in YoY revenue were just a few of the fabulous results we generated after only 2 to 3 months.
Strategies:
- A/B testing ad copy
- Robust keyword and location monitoring to rein in CPC and CPA
- Audience behavior tracking to eliminate non-converting audiences
Results:
- 50% reduction in CPA
- Nearly 2X conversion rate
- 50% increase in YoY revenue
4. Optimizing keywords via competitive analysis for Verizon Media
(Image: Unsplash)
Anyone in the telecom niche? If so, we don’t have to tell you just how competitive that market is. But competition allows brands to learn from successful competitors and create space to offer something new.
That’s what we helped Verizon Media accomplish with a revamped keyword optimization strategy.
We noticed competitors at the top of the food chain, like AT&T, were killing keyword rankings and landing higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
So we took what worked for them and expanded Verizon’s ad extensions to generate more leads. Then, we carved new opportunities to build brand awareness by optimizing keywords with high rank potential from single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs).
Strategies:
- Keyword optimization via SKAGs and competitive analysis
- Expanded ad extensions
Results:
- 3,200% more conversions
- 50% decrease in cost per conversion
- 37% decrease in cost per click
5. Remarketing for 686’s winter apparel ecommerce store
(Image: 686)
Clothing brand 686 needed help identifying the most qualified leads within its vast target audience.
The product? Winter apparel. But the thing is, not everybody in the US (hello, sunny Southern California) has much of a need for that.
So we had to retarget search campaigns to only those locations in the US that made sense. While most of that audience came from areas where snow is common, that wasn’t true for everyone.
That’s where remarketing came in.
Let’s say someone in Arizona had spent time on 686’s website looking at a specific product — perhaps a winter jacket, because they were planning a trip to Telluride.
We gathered that data and carefully re-optimized 686’s Google Shopping campaigns to make sure that Arizona customers saw those product photos and prices later.
And guess what all this data gave us? Prime material to update 686’s audience personas and better market their products to them.
We did something similar with Facebook Ads, and all these remarketing tactics turned into greater reach and subsequent conversions.
Strategies:
- Remarketing to qualified leads on Facebook and Google Shopping ads
- Optimized product feed with high-res images
- Location-based targeting
Results:
- 562% increase in YoY SEM revenue
- 303% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS)
- 67% reduction in cost per conversion
Interested in reading about more real-life PPC marketing strategies? Check out our complete roundup of PPC case studies!
The takeaway
A solid PPC marketing plan should document your target audience, performance goals, budgets, keywords, competitor analysis, and detailed success metrics.
The legwork involved can feel tedious, but it’ll save you time — and headaches — because you have the data to inform your strategy. Plus, you’ll see tremendous ROI when executed effectively.
But as incentivized as you are to create a winning PPC marketing plan, it requires patience, attention, and analysis. We wouldn’t tackle PPC management any other way.
That’s where we step up to bat. We’ve helped countless clients create winning PPC marketing plans that help reach and exceed their revenue goals.
Ready to get started? Let’s chat.
This article has been updated and was originally published in August 2023.