It’s pretty common for companies to use PPC ads solely as a means of attracting new customers and then move on to other means (e.g., landing pages, supplemental content) to keep these individuals engaged and moving through the sales funnel.

To get the most out of your PPC initiatives, you’ll want to begin developing multiple campaigns that focus on catering to the needs and expectations of individuals that exist within each stage of the sales funnel.

Though this will require you to increase your investment into your PPC initiatives, doing so will ultimately increase the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns.

This increased effectiveness will make the increased investment completely worth your while.

Using the Funnel to Guide Google Ads Campaign & Content Strategy

During the awareness stage, potential customers are conducting heavy research on a question they have or a problem they need solved. Regardless of the scenario, this stage is heavily focused on educating your audience.

Without capitalizing on this stage in the funnel, user acquisition can run low, and it can become difficult to continue growing past your existing customer base.

Efforts such as Google Display prospecting and non-branded, research-related search campaigns are strong methods to acquire additional customers.

Awareness via Google Display

Display campaigns take content, either image or text, and push it in front of internet users. Without proper constraints in place, these ads can technically reach anyone in the world, making proper audience targeting especially important.

For example, by layering Google Display Network audiences, topics, contextual keywords, and other features, you can ensure you only serve ads to people who would be interested in a product that you offer.

Create Ad Groups Focused on a Single Keyword

There are a few reasons for this:

For one thing, Google determines the Quality Score of your campaigns based on, among a few other factors, the relevance of your ad copy and attached keywords to the actual product being showcased.

So, if your product title and ad copy includes the phrase “men’s running sneakers,” using keywords including the word “shoes” instead of “sneakers” might cause your Quality Score to drop.

On the human side of things, using the one-keyword-per-ad-group approach simply provides a sense of consistency and continuity for those who view your ads.

For example, those who search for “men’s running sneakers” will be presented with an ad using that specific phrase; similarly, those who search for “men’s running shoes” will be presented with an ad using that specific phrase.

Assign Negative Keywords to Campaigns for Each Stage

Along with being more specific with your keyword focus, you also want to take care to ensure that your ads aren’t showing up for irrelevant or ineffective keywords, as well.

Ineffective keywords are phrases used by individuals who have little to no intention of making a purchase. One of the most common negative keywords of the ineffective variety are searches with the word “free” in them (e.g., “free men’s running sneakers).

Obviously, anyone using this term will have no interest in opening their wallet for you.

Short conclusion

PPC ads can absolutely be used to engage further with with customers existing at all stages of the sales funnel – not just at the top.

While you certainly want to ensure that you have other content and initiatives in place to cater to the needs and expectations of those at each funnel stage, you don’t want to overlook the impact a well-placed and well-timed PPC ad can have on those further along in their own personal buyer’s journey.