How to implement a full-funnel PPC marketing strategy

A full-funnel PPC marketing strategy is incredibly important.

But do you understand how to implement this strategy in your accounts?

This article will take you step-by-step through the marketing funnel, giving you tactical recommendations on how to keep the marketing funnel in mind when building your PPC strategy and some recommendations on how to measure success.

We’ll use the hot tub industry as an example. I’ll split each section into three parts: 

• Keyword research.
• Ad creation.
• Landing page optimization.

Awareness stage

Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) campaigns are focused on consumers in the awareness stage, when they haven’t yet entered the market for your product or identified a problem that needs solving. 

Awareness campaigns are meant to do exactly what they say: to make customers aware of your brand so that when they finally enter the market, you have a leg up due to brand recognition. 

A perfect example of this is insurance companies. People don’t need insurance often, but when they do, it sure helps that the Geico gecko is one of the first things you think of.

Keyword research

• Identify keywords that are informational in nature that align with your brand’s offerings and your target audience’s interest.
• Use Google’s Keyword Planner or any other keyword research tool to develop a list of these keywords with a decent search volume.
• A couple of examples of search queries that fall into the awareness phase:
  • “Are hot tubs good for you?”
  • “Are hot tubs worth it?”
  • “How much are hot tubs?”

Ad creation

• Display advertising is a big part of an awareness-based strategy, so it’s important to craft ads that are both visually compelling and effectively show your brand’s value.
• Video ads are another great tool for raising awareness. Use videos to introduce your brand and highlight key features of your products.
• The goal is to entice users to learn more, so use attention-grabbing headlines that are focused on the user’s search for more information.

Landing page optimization

• Design your landing pages so they match your ads’ messaging and visuals. Inconsistent branding and messaging only make the user’s journey confusing.
• Focus your landing pages on providing valuable content that educates the user’s about a specific product or your industry as a whole. Relevant blog posts are a great choice for awareness-based campaigns
• Include clear calls to action (CTAs) to encourage readers to continue down the purchase funnel. CTAs like “download brochure” or “learn more” are great here.

Dig deeper: Guide to PPC top-of-funnel reporting

Consideration stage

Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) campaigns are focused on consumers in the consideration stage, where they have officially entered the market for a product. Still, they have not found a solution or product that fits their needs. 

Consideration campaigns are meant to give customers the information they need to make a purchase. This could be many different things, like information about the product or service or sales information that could entice the customer to finally purchase.

Keyword research

• Identify keywords related to your products or services that indicate interest by the user. Users in the consideration phase often use keywords like “best” or “review” to help find the best brands and products. 
• Use Google’s Keyword Planner or any other keyword research tool to develop a list of these keywords with a decent search volume.
• A couple of examples of search queries that fall into the awareness phase:
  • “hot tub sales”
  • “Best hot tub brands”
  • “Hot tub store”
  • “Hot tub comparisons”
  • “Jacuzzi hot tub reviews”

Ad creation

• Focus on ad copy that provides valuable information to the consumer while also showing the value of your brand specifically. For hot tub sales, this could include “One year of free service with purchase” and information about the hot tubs.
• Create compelling remarketing ads that keep user’s interested after they’ve interacted with your content.

Landing page optimization

• Design your landing pages so they match your ads’ messaging and visuals. This is consistent across all stages of the funnel. (Branding is important, folks!) 
• Highlight social proof of your business and products, such as reviews, testimonials, case studies, etc. These build brand credibility and are incredibly important in building trust with new customers.
• Include clear CTAs to encourage users to proceed to the bottom of the funnel. CTAs like “Start your Free Trial” or “Subscribe to Our Email List” are perfect for the consideration stage. 

Conversion stage

Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) campaigns focus on consumers in the conversion stage, where they’ve identified what they want and are ready to purchase. 

Conversion campaigns are designed to get users to convert at that moment. If users don’t convert, the rest of the funnel is pointless, so it’s important to ensure your conversion campaigns run as effectively as possible.

Keyword research

• Identify keywords that are transaction or purchase-based. These tend to be longer-tail keywords and could include the product name, model number or words like “buy.”
• Use Google’s Keyword Planner or any other keyword research tool to develop a list of these keywords with a decent search volume.
• A couple of examples of search queries that fall into the awareness phase:
  • “Buy Jacuzzi hot tub”
  • “Jacuzzi J-LX Smart Tub”
  • “Jacuzzi hot tub store near me”

Ad creation

• Focus on ad copy that uses clear, purchase-oriented CTAs, as well as any promotions you have running currently. “Buy Now” or “Request a Quote” CTAs are great here.
• Dynamic remarketing ads that target people who have added items to cart but haven’t converted can be a great tactic for getting people to finally convert.

Landing page optimization

• Your conversion campaign landing pages should be as streamlined as possible so that no friction prevents the user from converting. Many conversion-based landing pages will even remove the top navigation from the page, so the user can only convert or leave the page.
• Include any promotional elements on the landing page, such as discounts, limited-time offers or free shipping.
• This applies to all landing pages, but ensure that the page load times are fast and that it works well on mobile. Nothing feels worse to a user than slow landing pages.

Measurement tips for your full-funnel PPC strategy

So, now that we have our campaigns set up and optimized for every stage of the funnel, how do we determine whether our campaigns are performing well? 

Here are a few tips for measuring progress and success across the marketing funnel:

Set up conversion tracking

• Ensure that conversion tracking is set up throughout your site so you can track user’s interactions throughout every stage of the funnel. I recommend using Google Tag Manager for all conversion tracking purposes.
• Define and create conversion actions for every stage of the marketing funnel so you can determine success. Here are some example conversions for each stage:
  • Awareness: Blog views, brochure/case study downloads.
  • Consideration: Email list subscriptions, free trial sign-ups.
  • Conversion: Purchases, quote requests.

Analyzing key performance metrics

• Continually monitor your KPIs to see improvement over time. Metrics like click-through rate and conversion rate can help you determine whether your campaigns are reaching a qualified audience or if you need to pivot.
• Within Google Ads, look at your different audience segments to see when and where people interact with your brand the most and focus on those high-quality segments.

Test, test, test!

• PPC is not a set-it-and-forget-it marketing strategy. As marketers, we should always be A/B testing something to see if we can improve our performance. Whether it be ad creating, landing pages, or targeting, there is no shortage of levers to pull to try and improve your campaigns.
• Optimize your campaigns based on the data you’re seeing so that you continue to improve ad targeting and performance over time.

Dig deeper: Setting PPC goals: How to tailor KPIs and metrics for each funnel stage