How to personalise your PPC campaigns

Today, users browsing and searching online have a high expectation for the results that they are shown. Not only do they want ads and results to be highly relevant to their initial search, they want them to be personalised; bespoke and tailored to their previous searches, tastes and preferences.

As customers are increasingly expecting this high level of personalisation, you need to invest time in adapting your marketing strategies to prioritise this approach.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of personalisation in PPC, practical tips on actionable steps you can take to upgrade your campaigns today, and the final word on retargeting with a personal approach:

• What is personalisation in PPC?
• What are the benefits of personalisation in PPC?
• How can you personalise your PPC campaigns?
• How to continually improve your personalisation
• Remarketing - how to use personalisation here

What is personalisation in PPC?

Let’s cut to the chase. Personalisation in PPC is based on tailoring your ads to individual user preferences and behaviours. It sounds simple, but as soon as you begin to dive into the countless products, ads and services that you want to cover in your campaigns, it quickly becomes a pretty big job. Add to that anything relating to audience demographics or stages of your marketing funnel, and the opportunity for growth and expansion of your existing campaigns has developed yet again.

At the heart of personalisation, is making use of your collected data to create targeted and relevant ad experiences that are informed, rather than generic. The more accurate your data and understanding of your industry, products and services, market, competitors and audience, the higher the chance of success.

Personalised PPC marketing involves dynamic ad content, audience segmentation and personalised messaging. We’ll dig into those later.

What are the benefits of personalisation in PPC?

So what’s so special about putting all this work into crafting a personalised PPC campaign, anyway? Turns out there are several pretty useful benefits to discover.

Increased Engagement
One of the first benefits that you'll see from personalising your PPC campaign is an increase in the level of engagement from users. This is often paired with higher click-through rates due to an increased relevancy of your ads. This follows a pretty simple principle that the most useful ads to users will be the ads that are the most relevant to them. So by personalising your ads you have improved the user’s experience of interacting with your ads for your audience. We call that a win-win. 

Better Conversion Rates
Personalised ads drive higher conversion rates by addressing the specific needs of your users and singling them out from a crowd in a way that really makes your ads stand out. You’re working against a tide of competitors, so naturally your customers will be drawn to ads that really speak to what they need and want at that moment.

As a bonus you also get a reduction in wasted ad spend because you cut out the cost of clicks from less relevant audiences.

Better ROI
Simply put, it’s a more efficient use of your advertising budget. Rather than spending a high percentage of your budget on what you think will work well, you can split your campaign up, give a small percentage to each ad group, and then see what actually performs well.

From the data that you collect after the initial run of your campaign, you can adjust your budget accordingly to bring in growth in underperforming areas, and provide enough of a budget to cater for your most in-demand and high-performing keywords. All this results in a higher ROI and increased revenue potential.

Improved Customer Loyalty
A good ad lies in the art of communication and fostering a relationship of trust and reliability from your entire brand’s online identity and connection with the customer. If you personalise the message and intention of each ad, you’re automatically building stronger relationships with customers through tailored messaging. That level of detail and thought goes a long way in the somewhat cold world of online shopping.

Keep this practice up for long enough, and you’ll be encouraging repeat business and long-term engagement from users who will build trust in your brand. They’ll know that you deliver what you promise, and really understand what they are looking for. 

How can you personalise your PPC campaigns?

How do you even begin with such a meticulous task? There are a few key steps that every marketer needs to take to benign the personalisation process.

Data Collection and Analysis
Before you start to split your audience into groups, you need accurate data and a thorough understanding of your existing brand’s performance online. It’s time to gather data from various sources including website analytics, CRM systems, and third-party data providers.Build this up in as much detail as you have available, then see how you can supplement your own data with those third-party sources. Once you’ve filled in any gaps in your understanding, you’ll have a solid foundation to build upon. 

As you go, you need to be analysing the data thoroughly. Analyse user behaviour, preferences, and demographics. Each of these elements can unlock a deeper understanding of how your audience works. What makes them tick. What motivates them to make a purchase online? Most importantly, it will start to segment your audience into like-minded groups. 

Audience Segmentation
After building up your data and analysis foundation, you’ll see those smaller groups within your audience start to form. Now you need to manually divide your audience into distinct groups based on those shared characteristics. Thanks to your research so far, this will be a decision informed by your data, so less of a stab in the dark.

Create segments such as demographics (like age or gender), location, purchase history, and browsing behaviour. You’ll soon see that there are differences in those data sets that you can personalise your ad copy and landing pages to. Almost without trying, a marketing plan is evolving for your campaign.

Personalised Ad Copy and Creative Now’s the fun part. Craft messages that resonate with specific audience segments. Take all of your research and data and focus your efforts on really speaking to those audience groups in a unique and personalised way. Alongside this ad copy, you can use personalised images and videos to capture user’s attention as they browse. Don’t forget to also be mindful of the landing pages that these new campaigns and ad groups link to. The complete experience for the user needs to be personalised, not just the first ad that they click on.

Utilise Machine Learning and AI
A quick word on machine learning and AI. Employ AI-driven tools to predict user behaviour and automate personalisation if you’d like a slightly simplified creation process. But with that in mind, it’s important to maintain control over the direction of your campaign overall. Some AI tools can be useful, but you need to supplement as you go with your own analysis and management.

Use predictive analytics to identify trends and opportunities for personalisation, and if you’re feeling advanced, try A/B testing those predictions alongside your own theories on what is going to perform well in your new campaign.

Dynamic Ad Content
Naturally, this is a pretty drawn out process, requiring  multiple new sets of highly specific ad groups and ads to be created. One way to shorten this process is through AI tools already available in Google Ads. Use dynamic keyword insertion to tailor ad copy to search queries, and generative ads like Performance Max as a shortcut.

How to continually improve your personalisation

A few weeks into your build, you’ll start getting data in from your new campaign. Now’s the time to really advance the results of your personalisation with some extra steps:

A/B Testing
Regularly test different ad variations to determine what works best. Try experimenting with different headlines, copy, images, and CTAs. The data from these A/B tests will quickly show you what to keep working with, and what to cut out from your campaign.

Monitor Performance Metrics
Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as CTR, conversion rates, and ROI. It sounds simple, but it can be easy to get caught up in the bigger picture, without really looking at what’s genuinely bringing in results. Use your new insights to refine and optimise your ongoing personalisation strategies.

Feedback Loops
Gather user feedback to understand preferences and pain points. Remember, it’s not just the data that’s leaving an impact on your campaign. Human reactions to your campaign are not easily tracked or decoded from PPC data, so take the time to talk to your audience directly. Incorporate that feedback into your personalisation efforts for continuous improvement.

Stay Updated with Industry Trends Keep abreast of new technologies and techniques in personalisation. PPC is one of the fastest moving industries in the world, so you’ll need to adapt your strategies to incorporate emerging best practices. Stay ahead of your competitors and make sure all that work in personalisation doesn’t fall flat in an outdated campaign.

Remarketing - how to use personalisation here

Want to know the fastest way to personalise your ads? One of the easiest ways to bring some quick personalisation into your campaigns is through a simple remarketing campaign. If you use dynamic remarketing to show users products or services they previously viewed, you’ll show an already engaged audience products that they are already interested in. Think of it as a shortcut to personalisation.

Summary

Personalisation is no longer just a highlight or an option of a successful PPC campaign; it’s a necessity to keep up to date with your competitors in today’s digital marketplace. Through taking the time to really focus on how you can personalise your next PPC campaign, you can create more relevant and engaging ad experiences that really connect with your target audience, rather than simply being another ad to scroll past. 

At the end of the day, a personalised PPC campaign is a campaign created with the audience specifically in mind. Your dream customers are waiting for you to connect with them through your most personalised campaign yet. So, what are you waiting for?