Paid search, or pay-per-click, is an extremely successful advertising model that businesses use to hone in on their target market. While many companies are attracted to the practicality of PPC marketing, many business owners also find it difficult to be successful without a healthy dose of prerequisite knowledge. That being said, paid search is still an awesome strategy for companies trying to increase their lead acquisition. Although an influx of new customers isn't the only benefit for businesses using pay-per-click. The data you acquire from your PPC efforts can actually be used to improve the user experience on your website -- boosting organic rankings and even conversion rates! Want to milk your PPC campaign for everything it's worth? Here are three just three ways you can get started:

1) You can test keywords you should be organically optimizing for.

Next time you're trying to figure out which new product or service will sell best, try testing keywords throughout your PPC campaigns. For example, consider that your pay-per-click ads are doing a great job converting Google searches for the phrase "garden window" into orders. Capitalize on this term by dispersing it throughout your website's copy/content, as well! Essentially, if you find success with particular keywords in paid search, you might as well transition your website to rank organically for them (a.k.a. for free). In this instance, incorporating "garden window" throughout your website's landing pages and blog posts will yield higher search results without the price tag.

2) You can improve your site's calls-to-action through pay-per-click A/B tests.

Also known as a split test, A/B tests are used to identify which design and copy changes would have the most positive impact on conversion rates. At Spectrum, our paid search department is constantly split-testing advertisements to improve click-through and conversion rates. We'll also use our test results to improve the performance of a website's landing pages. For example, we showed the following two ads to people who were searching the phrase "mattress store locations":

As you can see, 6.02% of people clicked through to the first ad starting with "Convenient locations", while only 4.28% clicked on the ad that started with "Great prices". Taking this difference into consideration could prove to be extremely beneficial in the long haul. The idea being that if specific keywords are making your PPC calls-to-action irresistible to potential customers, you can apply the same influential choice of words to the landing pages on your website.

3) You can figure out which works best: online chat, click-to-call, or both?

Click-to-call and online chat are two excellent ways to engage your potential online customers. Giving your visitors a simple, direct line to sales will increase more than just your closing rate; the overall customer experience will drastically improve, as well. Whether you go with click-to-call or online chat on your website entirely depends on the type of business you own. You may even decide that both are worthwhile for you.

A great way to find out which method is right for you is by creating two pay-per-click landing pages -- one with a click-to-chat option and one with an online chat option. By split testing the two, you'll gather data on which is more popular for your industry and product/service. Whichever has a higher click-through rate is a safe option, as it will likely solidify the most leads for your business over time.

For more information on PPC advertising, call or email your SEO to schedule an appointment. Not a Spectrum client? No problem. Get in touch with us here or leave us a comment below!