A lot of guides focus on how to improve underperforming PPC campaigns. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t for your business is a learning curve. But when you conquer that curve and see success, it can be hard to know where to go next.

How do you know if your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads campaigns are the best they can be? It can be difficult to know where the ceiling of your results is when everyone’s ads are unique; what you think are your best performers could, in fact, be pretty average. And you wouldn’t know how great they could be because they look like they’re doing well in comparison to your other ads.

Top-level PPC is all about incremental improvements. By accruing small wins, whilst they may seem minor on their own, together they can snowball into something worth celebrating.

And getting ahead by even a few percent can make you stand out in an increasingly crowded market. Here are 5 ways to do just that.

1. Intelligent testing

Testing gets a nod here because it’s so damn important. Without data, you’re blind. Ad success doesn’t depend on ‘gut feeling’ – you win by following the number trail.

So, get creative with your testing. The goal is to be able to build a bank of knowledge about what works well for your niche.

For example, at Adzooma we find particular days and times of the week bring about better connections. We’ve been able to identify the periods of time in which we see better CTRs and now run our ads during these times, rather than 24/7. We even have bid modifiers placed on our top-performing periods to really ensure we’re getting the best quality leads possible. How do we know all this? From the data.

Data and testing brings you insights into your customers’ behaviour that you can then replicate across other campaigns, so don’t neglect it.

2. Focus on audiences

Improving ads that are already seeing strong results may seem hard work, but you’re in a much better position than when you create ads from scratch. Audiences are the best way to narrow down who you’re targeting and ensure the clicks you are getting are high quality.

In addition, make the most out of the resources available to you such as Google’s in-market audiences. Layering their search intent data on top of your keyword campaign ensures your ad has the best chance of appearing to those ready to buy.

You don’t just have to pick one audience either. Here at Adzooma, we regularly layer 4 in-market audiences onto our campaigns to ensure our clicks are highly targeted; we find that people convert more often and at a cheaper cost-per-acquisition.

3. Revisit the basics

Don’t skip over this because you feel like you know them like the back of your hand. Be honest: when was the last time you took a look at your own customer journey?

When you’re focusing on making great campaigns even better, it’s easy to feel as though setting up the basics was aeons ago. If you’ve not checked in on your campaign fundamentals recently, you’ll likely find you can make some marginal gains by tweaking them to your new standards.

• Landing page: the strength of your landing page is the difference between gaining a customer and losing one, it’s as simple as that.

• Keyword match types: it’s important to tweak your keyword match types once you’ve got their performance data. Many of us start out with broad match modified types so we’re able to see the full picture, but once you’ve found your winners you should upgrade them to exact or phrase match.

• Ad extensions: you’ll collect a lot more clicks if you use all the ad extensions that are relevant to your business. Extensions offer more information about your brand which helps users make a more informed choice. Introducing Responsive Search Ads could be an easy way to boost your results.

By meticulously following best practices, you’ll create a more well-rounded, durable campaign.

4. Champion your champions with SKAGs

Yes, we’ve previously written that single keyword ad groups (STAGs) have rendered single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) obsolete. However they do still have niche use cases.

For example, you can use a SKAG to isolate your top-performing keyword to give it an extra boost.

If your winning campaign’s success comes primarily from one keyword, but it’s amongst other keywords, you’ll really benefit from restructuring your ads. The benefits of a SKAG means that it has the breathing room it needs to really show you what it can do.

With a single keyword ad group, you can write super specific ads and landing pages. It simplifies everything, making it easier for you and your customers – win-win.

This will only work if you have a good volume, but worth it as it can improve your CTR, Quality Score, average position and everything else. It can also lower your CPC. Try it to see if you can break your performance records.

5. Opportunities

There are always opportunities to improve, but it can be hard to know where exactly you should make changes for the better. And when things are already going well, you’re more reluctant to rock the boat. That’s all normal – but you won’t break any ROI records by settling for normal.

Adzooma has a handy feature, aptly named the Opportunity Engine, that presents you with opportunities to improve your PPC ads. The suggestions are based on your unique data and don’t just work for Google Ads, but Facebook and Microsoft too. No matter how well your campaigns are performing, Adzooma will always find ways to improve, helping you make marginal gains inch by inch.

Opportunities are divided into four categories:

• Improve Performance
• Reduce Wasted Spend
• Best Practices
• Account Structure

It’s important to ensure you keep every aspect of your account running smoothly, whether this is for your strongest or weakest campaign. Adzooma lets you make optimisations in just a few clicks.

Keep improving

Don’t be content with your PPC results – you can always do better. Continuous improvement is a good attitude for all aspects of your business. Only stop when you’ve hit capacity – then write some PPC ads to hire more staff and get cracking again. Look for other improvements by checking if your landing page is the best it could be or if your ad headlines are strong enough. There’s always work to be done.