It’s actually pretty easy to save money in PPC. Spending less comes down to getting fewer people to click on your ads, and getting those clicks at a lower cost. It’s all about adopting a Pay Per Conversion mentality – pay for what works at a cost that’s valuable to you.

Let’s look at the first angle: getting fewer clicks. Of course this can be done through lower CPCs and lower budget caps, but this doesn’t ensure that the clicks you’re cutting out are the unqualified ones. So the first step is to ask yourself, “What makes someone qualified?” Identify what it is you want them to do: Should they purchase a product? Download a white paper? Sign up for an e-newsletter? Once you’ve nailed this down, saving costs means weeding out those people who don’t perform the wanted action.

So how do you cut out unwanted clicks? There are several ways to do this – some quick, and some that take a little bit of detective work.

The Quick Ways:

• Not Every Keyword is Created Equal: A big mistake many advertisers make is assuming every additional keyword brings in proportional increases in revenue. For example, if you’re selling mp3 players, be cautious of broad general terms like “mp3,” where your ad could be triggered by someone looking for lyrics, downloads, or at best, the players you sell. If you feel you have to use broad terms, include negatives for everything your product or service is not.
  
  
• Extra Security Checkpoints: If you have to bid on “mp3” and your ad shows up when a user searches “new mp3s,” all isn’t lost. Being free, ad impressions aren’t the culprit. Eliminate the unwanted click by implementing specific, targeted ad copy, making it clear that your product is an mp3 player and nothing more. Sacrificing Click Through Rate (CTR) – not always a bad thing – can ensure you’re gaining brand awareness while keeping costs down. Of course, if you were running a promotional offer for free music downloads with a player purchase, a unique keyword and ad copy strategy would be essential.
  
  
• Don’t be Vague: Be clear about what you’re offering. Give price points, highlight unique advantages, and include critical qualifiers if necessary. For example, if a purchase requires a credit card, saying so will eliminate those who either can’t or are hesitant to purchase this way. And when you need to reduce costs, these are wise considerations.
  
  

Do Your Homework:
With the right capabilities, you can uncover some awesome insights into who your qualified visitors are: where they’re from, when they browse, how old they are and more. Use these findings to precisely spend your budget where and when it’s most profitable:

• Geo-Targeting: Is there an area where your product or service is in demand? Is it urban, rural, coastal? Restrict your ad delivery to these areas, and allocate budgets to regions that bring in the highest ROI.
  
  
• Day-Parting: Are you selling a corporate service that people are searching for during working hours? Or are you a travel site that gets evening browsers and bookers? Use these findings to set day-parting bids, which allow you to determine what time of day your ad shows and at what CPC.
  
  
• Demo-Targeting: Use research findings on gender, age, etc. to target different browsers at different CPCs. If an 18- to 30-year-old male is the biggest champion of your product, you’ll want to pay more for his click than a 45-year-old female’s.
  
  

Let’s take a quick look at the second angle: getting cheaper traffic. This can be accomplished by building up quality score or by eliminating competition.

• Landing Pages: Quality score evaluates relevancy and consistency between keywords, ad copy and landing pages. Designing PPC-specific pages based on your campaign architecture (your keyword and copy categorization) will not only improve your quality score – thus decreasing CPCs – but should also improve your conversion rate, subsequently increasing your ROI.
  
  
• Manage Your Affiliate Program: Competition drives up CPCs, and in the bidding platform, affiliates are your competitors. A policy that prohibits affiliates from bidding on brand terms is a great way to start saving costs. More often than not, it’s these brand terms that bring in the most revenue at the most efficient media spend. If someone is searching for “iPod,” Apple should want to get that sale through their online store at a $0.15 click, not a $3.00 one. And they don’t want that easy sale going to Best Buy. Let Best Buy, or whoever your affiliate may be, bid on the terms that are more expensive and less targeted to your brand.
  
  

Media spend and ROI can be tracked to any component of your PPC campaign. If keywords aren’t converting, turn them off. If certain ads are resonating, expand on their messaging. Every Paid Search dollar can work for you – make sure they do.

Julianne Bohl is a PPC Strategist at Acronym Media.